➡ Recently, laws requiring age verification have led to changes in software, starting in California and spreading to other places like Colorado and Brazil. These laws have resulted in operating systems being able to create a digital identity for all devices, leading to increased surveillance. This is particularly concerning with Microsoft’s Trusted Program Module (TPM) chip, a security feature in Windows 11, which can track and record all online activity. This chip, combined with new laws, could potentially eliminate device anonymity and increase surveillance, raising concerns about privacy and control.
➡ A new California law requires age verification, which tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Apple will implement using existing attestation technology. This could lead to privacy issues as it requires a Microsoft account, potentially revealing user identities and increasing app telemetry. The law, initially for California, will likely affect the whole world as app developers will implement age verification globally to avoid legal issues. Linux users may face challenges as many apps may refuse to run on Linux or de-Google phones due to the lack of a standardized age verification system.

There was a recent scramble to implement changes to software to comply with various age verification laws, first started by California. That law, due to start in January 2027, requires that operating systems store an age signal during install. This same rule is proposed in Colorado as well. Brazil passed their own law on March 17th, which is even broader and affects all operating systems, and even requires compliance by social media sites and app stores. The unexpected result of all this, operating systems will be able to lock in a digital identity for all your devices, and the stupid politicians of the world just introduce surveillance for themselves.

And guess what? This has nothing to do with children. A 1% problem is now a 100% problem. It may not be clear to you why this has become a digital identity threat, and this frankly is due to the lack of understanding of the technology and what’s already available. Today I will focus on the Microsoft side as this digital identity threat is directly tied to the use of the TPM chip, the Trusted Program Module, a Microsoft Design Security Chip that is now a required feature for Windows 11. And the specific problem with the TPM is called attestation.

This is another nail on the coffin to Windows, another reason why we must leave Windows as we will be forced to have every move on the Internet tracked and recorded. If you want to understand what this is all about, stay right there. Cryptographic Attestation The problem that the operating system makers have tried to solve is how to make sure that HQ gets certified accurate information about a machine without the possibility of spoofing. As an example, if an OS wants to find out the model of the machine it is running on, it will often read some file on the machine and then that gets transmitted to HQ as being true data.

But as everyone knows, particularly under Linux, it is trivial to change the values in these files, or in Windows’ case, change values in a storage database called the registry. Since anyone can write to the storage spot, it can never be guaranteed to be authentic or original. So Microsoft instead focused on a new solution using a factory-installed security chip called the TPM. This little chip has a unique public and private key that it can use for cryptography, and since it is hardware-based it cannot be tampered with. The private key is not visible outside of the chip, and this whole private-public key pair is referred to as the endorsement key.

The public key side is exposed so anyone can query the chip and get the public endorsement key. Public keys can be used to encrypt. But the rule is that only the party with a private key can decrypt. So if you pass an encrypted message to the chip, the chip can only echo back what you sent it if it has the private key. The way this is typically used is to have a secret value encrypted using a public key from the TPM. This is called sealing. Then when you want to retrieve the value, you send it back to the TPM to decrypt, and the original contents can now be seen.

This is the unsealing. Since the OS performed the encryption, the contents of the original data can be validated by the OS from the decrypted results. This then guarantees that the content did in fact get validated by the TPM chip and that it did not get spoofed. This cryptographic wrapper is now built into Microsoft Windows 11. In order for this scheme to work, notice it is the OS that does the sealing unsealing, not the end-user. So you really have no input as to what is being stored on your device. Microsoft Fingers are in the TPM In case you didn’t know, the TPM and the whole architecture for it was actually led by Microsoft.

In fact, key elements of the TPM were contributed by Microsoft. The main element for device surveillance is actually that endorsement public key that I just mentioned. This is immutable and completely unique to the machine. Immutable means it will never change. If you sell your computer later on, it would be possible to follow the chain of users, tie them to a Microsoft ID, and all users would be completely traceable. Now, some tech people argue with me about the endorsement key. They will quickly respond that no one can see the private key unless someone pulls out the hardware and does some digital forensics on the chip.

And these same people are like babes in the knowledge of surveillance. The public EK is already unique. There is no need to see the private key. The important aspects of surveillance are tying a unique identity to the device, later tie the device to the user, and then execute a scheme to announce that identity to a third party. And there’s no doubt that Microsoft can see the public endorsement key. The TPM Registry The full implementation of the TPM is that during boot, the bootloader actually interacts with the TPM and stores values about itself in the TPM’s platform configuration registers or PCR.

The pieces of data it observes are the settings of the BIOS or UFE firmware, the bootloader, and secure boot state. While this may be just mumbo jumbo to the non-techy, the point is that these values are able to signal what OS you’re running and what version of the OS is active. And thus, the TPM knows if you’re running Linux or some older version of Windows instead of Windows 11. The TPM is also used to ensure that other keys are not tampered with. Using the same cryptographic method of encrypting with the TPM public key, even the bitlock encryption is sealed in this same encryption layer.

So the TPM makes the OS theoretically tamper-proof, except to Microsoft. TPM is Microsoft’s tool. But what is not clear to most of you is that the TPM is not really under the control of the local user. Instead, the TPM is an architecture tied completely to the Microsoft Cloud and a party talking to the TPM is really Microsoft. So even the bitlocker keys themselves are typically stored in the Microsoft Cloud and Microsoft can check your configuration by asking the TPM to validate that you are using the expected OS and other BIOS settings. What is actually even worse is that whatever values need to be queried by some app will actually be handled as a call to Microsoft.

And then Microsoft will then query the device to provide the piece of data desired and then will ensure that the device is not spoofing the data by applying the TPM attestation to it. This was already being used by games that do anti-cheat. The game app will do a remote attestation by a Microsoft. First, they ask Microsoft for a reading of the hardware configuration, which is technically called a TPM quote. Then Microsoft will take that request and query the TPM of your machine directly by having the TPM report its registry settings or PCR. That report will again be cryptographically signed by the TPM so there is assurance of non-tampering.

The game app receives the attested report or quote from Microsoft and can then compare it to prior save quotes. And if there’s a change, the game can ban or lock the user. I hope you’re seeing bit by bit here that less and less of the computer is now under your control. Even computer configuration checking is actually tracked by multiple external parties and policed by a security chip. The piece I haven’t mentioned here is the connection of the TPM with the Microsoft account or MSA. Many of you know there used to be two major ways to use Windows.

First is using a Microsoft account, which ties your computer automatically to your payment methods in the Microsoft Store, your Xbox account and your Microsoft 365 account, your Windows Backup, OneDrive, whatever other services you use in the Microsoft Cloud. Secondly, typically in the enterprise world, the other uses to log in with a local account typically this ties you to an active directory managed on site by your enterprise. The new way is to use something called Microsoft Intune, which allows enterprises to have device identity management via Microsoft Cloud. This is an even more robust control of the TPM since the enterprise team controlling Intune can actually require a particular configuration on the device and ensure no tampering.

To repackage this explanation for you, it means that Microsoft is deliberately forcing everyone to create logins for all devices to be tied to a Microsoft Cloud account, whether by Intune or a consumer Microsoft account. The idea of a local account is slowly fading and we are being forced to completely eliminate device anonymity. While today it is still possible, especially on Windows 11 Pro, to use a local account, it is clear that a local account will be limited to privacy-focused individuals and perhaps some legacy small businesses. But the writing is already on the wall. Local account use is being slowly eliminated.

Privacy-focused people are unimportant. The idea is everything is going to be cloud and if you want to access services, you have to log in. Age verification tie-in. How does this tie into age verification? The new very dangerous laws first triggered by California requires OS makers to record an age signal of the user at initial installation or reset. While this by law is just a signal of under 13, over 13 and over 18, obviously you cannot have a permanent signal unless you store a date of birth. To make sure this is not tampered with, it is a foregone conclusion that when this is implemented, it will be sealed with a TPM attestation.

And this is the factor that the politicians did not consider. In order to protect themselves, it is common sense that major OS makers, Microsoft, Google and Apple will all use existing technology for attestation to eliminate liability. While the California law specifically includes allowing any kind of tracking to be assigned to the age verification, they obviously cannot stop an OS from using an existing attestation infrastructure. And I’m sure Governor Newsom in California consulted with Microsoft, Google and Apple and I’m also sure that those big tech companies approved the move. There is no negative aspect for them. Attestation validates their operating systems.

Big tech basically gets the stamp of approval to do age verification their way. And this forces every user to conform by using these existing attestation technologies. The side effect The side effect of this attestation tech leads to a cascade of privacy eliminating consequences. First, I’ve already said that it prevents people from using Microsoft Windows without revealing an identity. No more local accounts. Everything is expected to be tied to a Microsoft account. I didn’t state this before, but you cannot do attestation without a Microsoft account. If you’re using a local account, the return value will be an immediate fail signal.

So whenever attestation is required, it is implied that a Microsoft account is required. And the Microsoft account and attestation communications between the app and the TPM will then be available to Microsoft for very intense app telemetry. Remember, Microsoft is in the middle of all attestation requests. While apps that require some sort of attestation is currently limited today, with the threat of legal action from age verification, many, many apps will attempt to protect themselves by tying themselves to Microsoft attestation of age. Which means apps will require a Microsoft account. Currently, the biggest users of attestation are Microsoft itself and the gaming companies implementing anti-cheat.

But before the January 1, 2027 deadline for California, expect that many apps will stop working if you’re not able to provide this attestation. This will not be limited to California. Again, common sense. No app developer will rely on you, stating that you are not in California without some attested proof. They will just protect themselves and implement age verification via attestation and force you to have a Microsoft account. And thus what started out as just a California law affects the whole world. TPM on Linux While a TPM is a hardware device and will exist on a computer that can run Windows 11, the reality is that the TPM is not currently used by Linux in any meaningful way.

And while someone may write private apps that query the TPM directly, Linux itself doesn’t have any kind of built-in infrastructure that queries the TPM nor is there a way to do any kind of attestation that is already built into regular Linux. Some distros like Red Hat have provided modules that can be used to query the TPM to provide some level of PCR reporting, but this is optional and is likely for enterprise use. Thus, if you’re a consumer running Linux, you can basically ignore the TPM as it has no effect on you. While age verification may be a thing implemented by Linux distros in some way, the good thing is that there’s no centralized and standardized way to actually validate the age verification and no entity to consistently provide an API.

And there’s no mechanism to do the dangerous part, which is attestation. In fact, of the 600 or so Linux distros, there’s a possibility that there could potentially be many, many versions of age verification solutions, and it is actually more than likely that the vast majority of distros will just ignore age verification. This is an important detail to understand. In the end, each app will likely just query the OS for age, and then the OS will then respond with the age verification signal. But without a common standard, no app will construct 600 ways of receiving this age signal from every Linux OS or even a de-Google OS.

Sure, they will be willing to support the big players, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, but that’s it. So in the end, the apps will be forced to just state A, age verification failed, or B, just ban that particular OS from running the app. Meaning expect that many, many apps will just decide not to run on Linux or de-Google phones. This is the other dangerous cascade effect on privacy. Only the Google phones and Linux are identity-free ways to use the internet. To do attestation requires a device identity. This attestation tied to age verification with global reach really means that most apps will just refuse to run outside of the normy operating systems.

Microsoft Windows, Google Android, Google Chrome OS, Mac OS, and iOS. The Attestation Choke Point This is the purpose of this video, to highlight to you that the current technologies related to ATPM and attestation can now be used by publicly demanding laws focused on saving the children to project a surveillance infrastructure on all of you. No more pseudo-anonymous identity to access the internet. Everything tied to a Microsoft account, likely also tied to a credit card and phone number. No more freedom to install alternate OSes like Linux on your device. Someone can now dictate that you must use a normy operating system.

The government just dictated that your computer has to run Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. This is a dangerous time folks. While it would still be possible to always run Linux and AD Google OS, this makes it difficult to convince normies to move to a safer OS. Once they move to Linux or AD Google phone, the user will immediately see friction because some apps that they think are absolutely important for their social life or pleasure will not work. So the open source community will be the biggest victims of these age verification laws. Some 80 year old gentleman left a comment on my age verification video stating that he will now unsubscribe because he doesn’t like that I’m against laws banning pornography and he doesn’t want that legacy for his grandchildren.

Well sir, you have just left your grandchildren a legacy of permanent surveillance where every device is recognized and every click on the internet trackable. Good job. Grandpa should have instead focused on the fact that parents are responsible, not some sucking government. These changes will certainly create a lot of friction in our app use. And you know what? I don’t care. If an app restricts me, I can live without that app, whatever it is. I’m going to stick to Linux and preserve my privacy. Folks, privacy is of course the main focus of this channel and I teach you technology so you understand the risk technology adds to your life.

We have people who discuss these issues at my platform Braxmay. Join us there and become educated about these complex problems. To support this channel, we have some products in our store that provide the toolkit to retain your privacy. They are awesome products. We have Braxmail, an email service with unlimited aliases and identity protection. We have Brax virtual phone, anonymous phone numbers for two-factor authentication. We have bytes VPN for anonymizing your IP address, innovating privacy, invading laws. We have the Google phones, phones free from big tech tracking. The successful Brax 3 phone is open for ordering right now at Braxtech.net and the new Brax OpenSlate Linux Tablet is also now a new project you can check out on Braxtech.net.

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