After Discord fiasco, age-check tech promises privacy by running locally. Does it work?

In the wake of a significant backlash, Discord has retracted its plans for a global rollout of an age-verification system. This move comes after users raised alarms about the implications of the technology and its partners, prompting a closer examination of the often-overlooked firms involved in age assurance. The controversy has spotlighted the challenges facing age-verification methods and the need for solutions that prioritize user privacy and security. Discord's credibility took a hit following a data breach last autumn, which exposed the government IDs of around 70,000 users from a former age-check affiliate. The platform's assurance that future age verifications could be performed locally on users' devices did little to quell concerns. Users were left questioning who would actually manage the age verification process, leading to the revelation that Privately SA was behind the technology, despite not being listed as an official partner on Discord’s site. The disclosure further complicated matters, especially after Discord faced criticism for removing a disclaimer about its previous partner, Persona, which had been dropped following a similar backlash during a trial in the UK. Users expressed concern that even if IDs were supposed to be deleted promptly, the potential for further data collection made Discord’s partners more enticing targets for cybercriminals. As discussions around the safety of IDs intensified, some users took matters into their own hands, attempting to test the robustness of the technology employed by Discord's partners, including Privately and Persona. Although these attempts were largely unsuccessful, they heightened the alertness of Discord's age-verification collaborators, underscoring the ongoing tension between privacy and security in digital age verification systems.