tech
February 22, 2026
Fury over Discord's age checks explodes after shady Persona test in UK
Persona confirmed all age-check data from Discord's UK test was deleted.
TL;DR
- Discord's new age verification process defaults users to teen experiences and raises concerns about government ID collection.
- A previous breach exposed 70,000 Discord users' IDs from a former age check partner.
- Discord plans to use AI video selfies for age estimation, with government IDs required only for appeals.
- A UK experiment using vendor Persona stored user information for up to 7 days, raising privacy issues.
- Critics suspect Persona of having hidden ties to government agencies and investors like Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.
- Cybersecurity researchers found a workaround for Persona's age checks and exposed its frontend code.
- Persona denies government ties, including with ICE, and claims investor influence is limited.
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