What does Paytm have in common with porn in the UK? A lot more than you think. The British government is planning to deputize convenience store owners throughout the country to accept KYC-style age verification for people who want to opt out of the country's porn-blocking mandate. The system would work like this: to be authorised to watch pornography on their internet connections, British citizens would have to prove that they are adults, and present ID proof to a nearby shopkeeper who has been authorized to hand out passes with codes to allow online porn access. This has already raised privacy concerns since shopkeepers would have to keep records of IDs they're given and send them to the government. In response to these concerns, the British government said that upcoming data protection legislation would keep this information safe. The passes will reportedly also allow people to buy knives and alcohol online, sales of which are age-restricted too. Why? Ironically, this has been announced to improve privacy — the sixteen-digit codes are supposed to be anonymous so that when users browse porn, they will not have to enter personal details when encountering an age-verification firewall. But While age restrictions on porn access haven't been implemented yet — they have been delayed till the end of this year — private players like MindGeek, which runs several of the highest-ranking porn sites on the internet, have already started working on private-sector age verification solutions like AgeID. These solutions may most likely involve verifying users'…
