Been down a rabbit hole this week reading through a thread about self-hosting and CGNAT, and honestly, it’s one of those topics that sits right at the intersection of “deeply nerdy” and “genuinely important infrastructure that affects real people.” Bear with me if you’re not in the IT world — I’ll try to make this relatable.

For the uninitiated, CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT) is basically your ISP hiding your connection behind a shared IP address. Think of it like living in an apartment block where everyone shares the same street address — great for the landlord who doesn’t have to manage individual addresses, not so great if you want people to actually find your specific door. For those of us who like to self-host services at home — a personal media server, a game server, a home automation dashboard — CGNAT is an absolute pain in the neck.

Something’s been nagging at me this week. Word is spreading that Anthropic — the company behind Claude — is starting to require identity verification for users. Not just a credit card or an email address. We’re talking government-issued ID and facial recognition scans.

Let that sink in for a moment. A facial recognition scan. To use a chatbot.

I’ve been following the online discussion around this, and the reactions range from darkly amused to genuinely alarmed. Someone in one thread summed it up perfectly: “You now need to submit your passport and a DNA sample for every website or app. How the fuck did we reach this point?” A bit hyperbolic, sure, but the sentiment is completely understandable. There’s a very real sense that the walls are closing in on ordinary people who just want to use technology without handing over their entire identity.

Been thinking about this a lot lately after stumbling across a discussion online that genuinely made me laugh and then think a lot harder than I expected to for a Thursday afternoon.

Someone from Western Sydney was talking about how they flip between polished corporate-speak in the office and full “wallah bruva I’m from The Area” mode the moment they’re around other ethnics on a smoke break. And the responses? Gold. Turns out basically everyone does some version of this, regardless of background, culture, or postcode.