Discord is stepping back from its partnership with age verification provider Persona after facing strong criticism from users.
The company confirmed that it ran a limited test of Persona in the UK, but that trial has now ended. Savannah Badalich, Discord’s head of product policy, said in a statement that the test took place in the UK, where age assurance tools had already launched, and has since concluded.
The backlash began after Discord announced plans to roll out age verification globally next month. Many users accused the platform of not being transparent about how it would handle facial scans and ID uploads. Much of the concern centered on Persona, a company that also provides age verification services for Reddit and Roblox.
An earlier version of Discord’s support page mentioned that some UK users might be part of an experiment that processed their age verification data through Persona. Users quickly highlighted parts of Persona’s privacy policy stating that the company may collect personal data from third-party databases, government records, and publicly available sources. Around February 15, Discord removed references to Persona from its support page.
Persona CEO Rick Song told Ars Technica that the company deleted all data collected during Discord’s test immediately after verification. However, privacy worries continued to grow after an independent publication called The Rage reported that security researchers had found exposed code at a US government-authorized endpoint. The report also mentioned thousands of files showing an interface that combined facial recognition with financial reporting tools.
Song denied that Persona has any government contracts. The Rage added that the exposed code appeared to be powered by an OpenAI chatbot.
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Discord has not provided additional details about its broader global age verification rollout, but the end of the Persona test suggests the company is trying to ease user concerns before moving forward.
