I wonder why such discussions are always framed as an all or nothing propositions. Zero knowledge systems are a decades old invention. Just very briefly: based on some ID a site issues cryptographycally signed tokens claiming some fact, e.g. the requester being an actual real person, adulthood, etc. Such a token could be presented by an otherwise anonymous user to a 2nd site with their own signature as proof of said property in order to consume their service. Tokens could even be single use.

A requirement to prove someone is, in fact, a human is not unreasonable. Banning bots or bad actors could be a solution to a lot of the problems on social media etc…

There is naturally a major shortcoming of this scheme, authoritarians could not track people…

Sadly, besides the bottom line, the only universally relaible motivator for an organization is legislation.

So I keep hearing… Yet, I’m having a hard time believing that most people are even aware of those fancy features, let alone use any of them.

I accept that there are important models implemented as excel sheets. Reimplementing or even attempting to migrate away is viewed as risk. But this is a different argument.

Convincing CEOs is not our job. In general they have neither the obligation nor the habbit to take anything else other than their KPIs into consideration. Convincing elected polititians to legistlate is our job.

Some know already, some will bow to reason, many will do whatever keeps them elected. People will need to re-learn to play the long game.

You sound not yet ready to unplug 😃

But to provide another perspective, havent used a Samsung phone for 10yrs. I generally buy a cheap phone with as little as possible preinstalled spyware. Except for browsing and messaging, every app I use daily comes from fdroid.