I mean, I literally say that implementing actual verification would be an invasion of privacy. Storing data isn’t the problem, because we do that any way. This isn’t any different from the fields for your real name or location, which nobody gives a fuck about either. At least systemd are talking about ways to secure that data, whether to add a separate flag or save some CPU cycles before wiping it from memory and such. If you force me to enter something, that’s definitely shady. If you force me to verify that information, we’re in “fuck no, fuck you, fuck this surveillance bullshit” territory. But getting upset about this optional field in particular, but not any other data storage option, is hypocritical. Worse still, getting upset at the one effort to provide a standard that also makes some attempt at securing it is short-sighted. We have a hundred ways to store data. Cancelling one won’t stop the root issue: Collecting that data. Fuck that law, fuck the people that wrote it, fuck the people that passed it, fuck the people forcing you to surrender PII for plain bullshit reasons and fuck the people implementing those surveillance methods. That is worth raging about.