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legally mandatory age verification API compliance may be required #10744

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legally mandatory age verification API compliance may be required#10744

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C: otherNo other component ("C:") label applies to this issue, or the appropriate label is not yet known.No other component ("C:") label applies to this issue, or the appropriate label is not yet known.P: defaultPriority: default. Default priority for new issues, to be replaced given sufficient information.Priority: default. Default priority for new issues, to be replaced given sufficient information.legalThis issue involves matters of law.This issue involves matters of law.project managementThis issue pertains to the management of the Qubes OS Project.This issue pertains to the management of the Qubes OS Project.

Description

adrelanos

opened on Mar 4, 2026 · edited by adrelanos

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Qubes OS release

all

Brief summary

New age verification (or rather declaration) law, passed. (Not draft.) Effective January 2027:

https://california.public.law/codes/civil_code,_division_3,_part_4,_title_1.81.9

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043

This is currently being discussed in the media in many places. For example:

https://www.techradar.com/computing/software/californias-age-verification-law-is-proving-controversial-heres-what-you-need-to-know-and-why-some-linux-distros-are-in-the-firing-line

Qubes may also be affected by this law, which comes with very severe penalties on violation.

Steps to reproduce

n/a. Obviously not implemented yet.

Expected behavior

To be determined.

Actual behavior

Not considered, implemented.

Additional information

Discussed in many Linux distribution forums.

Related Qubes forum discussion:

https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/how-much-do-we-gotta-worry-about-this-linux-age-verification-bs/39788

Some base distribution developer discussions:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2026/03/msg00016.html debian-devel

https://lists.fedorahosted.org/archives/list/[email-masked]/thread/MYM452NNXF3ZJ7HPBYT4HDNTKRK2FWBX/

https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=[email-masked]&q=subject:%22On+the+unfortunate+need+for+an+%5C%22age+verification%5C%22+API+for+legal+compliance+reasons+in+some+U.S.+states%22&o=newest&f=1

https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xdg/2026-March/thread.html#14764

Research, discussion, draft, etc. of mine:

https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Age-api

Arguments such as jurisdiction not applicable; not enforceable; and more are being addressed here:

https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Age-api#Objections

Impact on Qubes

As per above.

Impact on Kickscure for Qubes / Qubes-Whonix

Since Qubes OS may be the entity distributing Templates, the decision of what Templates can and should do will ultimately rest with the Qubes maintainers.

Edit 1

Draft: Add parental controls to the Accounts portal flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal#1922

Edit 2

https://forums.whonix.org/t/whonix-adding-age-verification/22969

Activity

adrelanos
added
P: defaultPriority: default. Default priority for new issues, to be replaced given sufficient information.Priority: default. Default priority for new issues, to be replaced given sufficient information.
on Mar 4, 2026

adrelanos
added the

BugBug

issue type on Mar 4, 2026

unman commented on Mar 4, 2026

unman

on Mar 4, 2026

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Regardless of the issues surrounding jurisdiction,enforcement, etc it should be obvious that Qubes is a derivative distribution. Whatever solution (if any) is given upstream, we will be following.

It seems to me entirely an upstream issue.

👍React with 👍4ArrayBolt3, dimlev, Sakura-sx and GWeck👎React with 👎1sersonz

ArrayBolt3 commented on Mar 6, 2026

ArrayBolt3

on Mar 6, 2026

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I assume Dom0 would probably store the age data, if this ends up needing to be implemented. If so, there will probably need to be some mechanism to expose this to individual VMs (probably qrexec-based to avoid the flexibility issues and privacy concerns of exposing a static value via qubesdb or similar).

unman commented on Mar 6, 2026

unman

on Mar 6, 2026 via email

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On Thu, Mar 05, 2026 at 04:49:43PM -0800, Aaron Rainbolt wrote:
ArrayBolt3 left a comment (QubesOS/qubes-issues#10744)

[quote]
I assume Dom0 would probably store the age data, if this ends up needing to be implemented. If so, there will probably need to be some mechanism to expose this to individual VMs (probably qrexec-based to avoid the flexibility issues and privacy concerns of exposing a static value via qubesdb or similar).
[/quote]
Reluctant as I am to waste more time on this issue, I'm not clear how
this would meet the requirements (if any) laid down for the Operating System
providers for OS that Qubes uses for templates and template based qubes.

Nor is it clear that Qubes would BE an Operating System Provider
within the terms of AB1043. It's been suggested to me that Qubes could
be seen as a service provider, and not an Operating System Provider
- that mantle applies to the producers of Xen. (Suggested by someone
who has deeper knowledge of law than most people here and certainly in
the Forum.)

These are complex questions, and in my opinion it would be best to leave
them for determination by those who understand the issues. Once that is
done, and the validity, scope, and enforceability of AB1043 are agreed,
then Qubes can move to informed decisions on what action to take.

👍React with 👍3ArrayBolt3, GWeck and Sakura-sx

TheGex777 commented on Mar 6, 2026

TheGex777

on Mar 6, 2026 · edited by TheGex777

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Don't be a coward complying with this.

👍React with 👍4sersonz, clhin, gasull and ccliiii

GWeck commented on Mar 8, 2026

GWeck

on Mar 8, 2026

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Qubes is not a product developed (exclusively) in the state of California and is not provided by a firm in that state. So this law does not apply to the creation and distribution of Qubes, because California is not entitled to determine what happens in the rest of the world. Usage of Qubes in California might be prohibited, however, or illegal - but only there, but this should not affect the rest of the world.

👍React with 👍1gasull

unman commented on Mar 8, 2026

unman

on Mar 8, 2026 via email

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If a provider makes a product available in California and does not
include the mandatory (under California law) form and API, then they
will be liable for civil sanctions in California if the operating
system is used by a child (as principal user) in the state.
It is this combination of circumstances that is exercising minds, and
this possibility that may affect the rest of the world. The solution
adopted upstream (in Xen, Debian, Fedora, etc), and consideration of
legal advice will determine how Qubes should respond.

Note that there are civil penalties - if Qubes has no standing in
California (and perhaps the US), and Qubes developers will not enter
California, (or perhaps other states if judgement is enforced there),
then there will be no problem.

But the law has not been tested and may be deemed unenforceable and
invalid by legal action. I doubt Qubes will take that action (though it
could enter in to a class action if that were opened).

👍React with 👍1gasull

Sakura-sx commented on Mar 9, 2026

Sakura-sx

on Mar 9, 2026

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I feel strongly against editing the code to comply with this law.

If an authoritarian regime were to -for example- ban encryption or Tor, it wouldn’t justify packaging a less-private version of the software for that region.

I am not a lawyer, but my proposed solution would be adding a disclaimer advising to check your local regulations and only download/use QubesOS if it is legal in your jurisdiction (the license may already cover this with things like "no warranty" or liability disclaimers, which may mean no changes would be needed to “comply”; not sure). From there, as far as I know, it would be the responsibility of any third-party distributors not to distribute it where prohibited.

Would this be feasible?

👍React with 👍4GWeck, sersonz, clhin and gasull

GWeck commented on Mar 9, 2026

GWeck

on Mar 9, 2026

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Qubes is no product created in or distributed from California. So California law does not, in my (non-lawyer opinion), apply to its distribution - not more than any law in, let's say, Russia. Usage, however, may be restricted by laws in some countries. So, it should suffice to warn potential users to look at the legislation in their respective countries. If someone uses a product that is not compliant with local laws, that is their problem, but not that of the manufacturer. For instance, in Germany, cars are, as far as I know, required to have seat belts. If I use a car without such belts, I may be doing something illegal, but the manufacturer of this car could not be held responsible for what I am doing.

👍React with 👍4Sakura-sx, sersonz, clhin and gasull

andrewdavidwong
added
C: otherNo other component ("C:") label applies to this issue, or the appropriate label is not yet known.No other component ("C:") label applies to this issue, or the appropriate label is not yet known.

project managementThis issue pertains to the management of the Qubes OS Project.This issue pertains to the management of the Qubes OS Project.

legalThis issue involves matters of law.This issue involves matters of law.
on Mar 10, 2026

andrewdavidwong
changed the issue type from

BugFeature

to

FeatureFeature

on Mar 10, 2026

key6oardWarrior commented on Mar 11, 2026

key6oardWarrior

on Mar 11, 2026

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Qubes is not a product developed (exclusively) in the state of California and is not provided by a firm in that state. So this law does not apply to the creation and distribution of Qubes, because California is not entitled to determine what happens in the rest of the world. Usage of Qubes in California might be prohibited, however, or illegal - but only there, but this should not affect the rest of the world.

I completely agree with this statement. Qubes should not comply with this law under these grounds (not a lawyer) and many more ideological ones. However, lets say for fecal matter and giggles that California decides to take action to ensure Qubes OS complies and the courts up hold that California can do this. Qubes should still refuse to comply and refuse to take ANY technical mesures to stop California users from using, downloading, installing, or modifying Qubes in anyway. Because 1) Qubes is owned by the people. Anyone around the world who has contributed, made a bug report, or even just quitely used Qubes OS owns this product. How do you sue or take down a decentralized system? (2) This OS is all about giving people more privacy and security to anyone who wants or needs it. By taking even one non-good faith attempt to ensure the furturance of that goal shows we are willing to bend the knee to authoritarians and their theft of our privacy. Which will result in more and more attempts (citation: see all of human history). (3) Everyone who uses and helps to maintain Qubes should remember that the cost of freedom is not fee! And if a distro attempts to put this trash in our OS it should be removed before the next version come to our Qubes Template Managers. We all have to work hard to ensure that not only our rights and freedoms are maintained, but thoes who live in places like California, Iran, Russia, China, UK, France, Switzerland, and any other place humanity has decided to live.

gasull commented on Mar 13, 2026

gasull

on Mar 13, 2026

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Is anybody planning to fork Qubes OS in the event of Qubes OS complying with this authoritarian law?

I guess we're going to need anonymous developers, Radicle with Tor/I2P, and torrents.

ben-grande commented on Mar 13, 2026

ben-grande

on Mar 13, 2026

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The issue tracker is not a discussion forum. I'd actually prefer to close this issue and move it to qubes-devel, although I am not sure if external input will add more noise than actually helping, so in case the discussion is moved to the mailing list, please keep it development focused. I don't want it to become extra verbose like it happened on the forum.

QubesOS
locked as off topic and limited conversation to collaborators on Mar 13, 2026

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C: otherNo other component ("C:") label applies to this issue, or the appropriate label is not yet known.No other component ("C:") label applies to this issue, or the appropriate label is not yet known.P: defaultPriority: default. Default priority for new issues, to be replaced given sufficient information.Priority: default. Default priority for new issues, to be replaced given sufficient information.legalThis issue involves matters of law.This issue involves matters of law.project managementThis issue pertains to the management of the Qubes OS Project.This issue pertains to the management of the Qubes OS Project.

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