Notice: ECA Digital – Act No. 15,211/2025 may affect users from Brazil by 17.03.2026 – Announcements

Yes, this is a welcome development given that these laws were written by legislators who have no expertise in technology.

CO SB26-051 was drafted and sponsored by Democratic Sen. Matt Ball, and Rep. Amy Paschal. Based on a lecture, it was very clear that they do not understand technology or operating systems at all. They also fail to understand how many pre-existing embedded devices such a law would now theoretically make in violation of such a law. This is particularly problematic for small IoT devices, routers, printers and many commercial embedded systems where most have partially closed source firmware and end up never being updated after a rather short lifetime, although in many cases 10+ years in use.

It’s also very disheartening to see how these state representatives have completely ignored their constituents, many of whom are progressive dems and independents who very clearly support privacy protections, and would be totally against this foolish law.

Given the attached written public comments at the 1st reading of the bill, the vast majority of them were in opposition, and only one proposed to amend. Many others in Labour
& Technology Committee also expressed opposition, far more than those who spoke in favor of it.

The groups that testified in support of the bill were only one, made by a mr. Kouri Marshall (representing “Chamber of Progress”).

Despite this very vocal opposition, however, the bill managed to make it out of committee and was rushed through and brought to a vote without time for much of any further discussion in the state senate. This was because most of the time in that day’s session was already taken up by other items, so this one slipped by very quickly.
Most of that day’s time was notably used by Republican representatives who spoke out against another gun control bill.

Based on listening to the recording of the legislative session where the OS age verification bill was passed, it slipped by without further comment, thanks to it being printed after the end of the day, and the clerk only asking for verbal “NO” votes and assuming someone who was silent was a “YES”.

This is one of the worst and most stupid laws ever passed in the state of CO. This would have the exact opposite effect of what they intended, only serving to make age data more available to AdTech companies, and those who might use it for nefarious purposes. The data will be misused, and children will now be targeted by these companies and anyone who can access the data, which if web browsers start offering it to any third-party website, then it’s basically going to be given to anyone. The only way to really “protect the kids” here would be to never collect such information, and never allow it to be given to untrustworthy third-party sites at all.

It’s a good sign that we’re now seeing such vocal pushback from System76 and others…this bill slipped by and needs to be redone.