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Discord is trying to distance itself from age verification provider Persona after a steady stream of user backlash. In a statement emailed to EdgeSavannah Badalich, Discord’s head of product policy, confirms that the company “conducted limited testing of Persona in the UK where the Lifetime Guarantee was previously launched and that testing has since ended.”
that Archived version to Discord support page mentioned That users in the UK “may be part of an experiment” that involves processing their age verification information through a person. Users pointed out To the character privacy policywhich states that it may obtain personal data from users through “third-party databases, government records, and other publicly available sources.” Discord removed mention of the character from its support page on or around February 15, according to Archived version of the site. Persona CEO Rick Song He tells Ars Technica They deleted the information collected as part of the Discord test immediately after verification.
Amid privacy concerns surrounding the person, A report from the independent publication called Anger He highlighted the findings of three security researchers, who discovered exposed code “at a US government-approved endpoint,” along with 2,456 files exposing an interface that “links facial recognition and financial reporting.” However, Persona CEO Rick Song confirmed this Ars Technica The company does not have any government contracts, while Anger He notes that the exposed code “appears to be powered by the OpenAI chatbot.” song In active connection With one of the researchers who discovered the exposed code, which has since been removed.
Aside from Personality, Discord has only specified its use of k-ID for age verification, which it says enables scans to estimate facial age and can… Support identity scanning verification Through a company called Veratad. Discord emphasizes that the age estimation technology used for facial scanning will work locally on your device without uploading your video selfies, but it does not include that language for “identity documents and ID-matched selfies:”
Discord and k-ID do not permanently store personal identification documents or personal video images. Photos of your identity documents and matching ID selfies are deleted immediately after your age is confirmed, and the video selfie used to estimate facial age never leaves your device.
“We regularly evaluate our vendor partners to improve our Lifetime Guarantee experience and expand user options while prioritizing privacy,” Badalich says.
According to Discord, the “vast majority” of users They won’t have to verify their age on the platform, either because the machine learning model they use to estimate age based on existing account and device information and activity data determines it’s not required, or because the user hasn’t accessed the settings or content that raises the flag. If Discord can’t determine that someone is a “high trust” adult, they will be placed in the “Teens” experience by default, which blocks access to age-restricted channels and servers and places filters on sensitive content, unless they verify their age, which may include a combination of facial scanning or submitting a photo ID.