Discord’s age verification checks face scrutiny after experiment test run by Persona

Discord

• Discord's age check flaw raises privacy concerns among users
• Most users won't need to show ID, Discord says
• Persona's trial with Discord ended, all collected data deleted

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The Popular gaming streaming service, Discord, recently announced a “teen-by-default” setting for all accounts, starting from March, defaulting users to a teen experience until their ages are confirmed. This change prompted concerns about data privacy as the company planned to collect more government IDs as part of its global age verification process. Now, a newly uncovered flaw in Discord’s age verification rollout has added fresh pressure to the company.

A new report by Ars Technica states that over the past few days, criticism for this verification process has intensified after users learned that Discord’s verification process could require government IDs, after a breach at a former age-check partner from last year exposed the government identification documents of around 70,000 users. Attempting to reassure users, Discord has now claimed that most users wouldn’t have to show ID, and the gaming service will scan selfies using AI to estimate ages.

Responding to concerns, Savannah Badalich, Discord’s global head of product policy, via The Verge, has confirmed that IDs shared during appeals “are deleted quickly—in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.” However, security researchers recently found that frontend components tied to a US identity verification company, Persona, were also accessible on the open web, prompting debate over how securely the platform is handling sensitive age checks.

Thankfully, Discord has now assured that this collaboration with Persona was performed on only a small number of users, which ran for less than one month, and has now concluded. Moreover, Persona CEO Rick Song separately stated that all data collected from verified users during the trial was deleted subsequently after verification. After all of this, privacy concerns still run high among Discord users, as many still hesitate to upload ID scans or biometric selfies to access gaming servers or community groups without any restrictions. Additionally, the lack of any detailed explanation from the company further fuelled speculation and mistrust.