I get it, but I believe it to be a false equivalence. This change is not happening in isolation. There is currently a general trend towards de-anonymising users, and this DOB field is a step in that direction.

The only real question is, do I want my computer storing more, or less, personally identifying information. Given that I don’t trust the intended use, or ANY use which is later enabled by this, my answer is ‘less’.

I think you might be replying to wrong conment

I do understand that, but I think you are applying a post hoc rationalisation to the change. For example, examining the change through the lens of intended use - you can’t - there is no such use of the field today - it’s tomorrow’s use that is potentially problematic. I don’t want to wait until a bad actor applies the field, I want to stop the field from existing.

This change is not happening in isolation. There is currently a general trend towards de-anonymising users, and this DOB field is a step in that direction.

The only real question is, do I want my computer storing more, or less, personally identifying information. Given that I don’t trust ANY use which may be later enabled by this change, my answer is ‘less’.

I get it, but I believe it to be a false equivalence. This change is not happening in isolation. There is currently a general trend towards de-anonymising users, and this DOB field is a step in that direction.

The only real question is, do I want my computer storing more, or less, personally identifying information. Given that I don’t trust the intended use, or ANY use which is later enabled by this, my answer is ‘less’.

Hard disagree. This represents the pot getting turned up on the frog.

I acknowledge you are factually correct. However, once this field exists, it enables later reference and/or mandatory dependencies.

There is no positive use case , but lots of possibly negative use cases. For that reason, it shouldn’t exist.

There’s a hyperlink in OP comment (this one) that has the study linked through a download button.

here’s the direct ddownload link