Persona

Persona is an Identity Verification company, founded in 2018 by Rick Song and Charles Yeh. It is funded by Founders Fund^[1] which is an adventure capitalist firm co-founded by Peter Theil.^[2][3]

From the 14th July 2025 they started working with Reddit to perform ID checks on it's UK site, as part of the UK's Online Safety Act.^[4]

In February 2026 Discord announced they would be experimenting with Persona to perform ID checks worldwide.^[5][6]

Products and services with the services provided by Persona usually block functionalities and content (generally content or functionalities flagged as "adult" content) until the verification is complete or bypassed. If the user is verified as an adult, they'll be able to have total or most access to the content of that product or service.

Their Privacy Policy contains forced arbitration that applies to users belonging to the United States:^[7]

YOU (IF YOUR ARE A RESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES) AND PERSONA IDENTITIES, INC., INCLUDING ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, SUCCESSORS, AND ASSIGNS (“COMPANY”) AGREE THAT ANY PROCEEDINGS TO RESOLVE OR LITIGATE ANY DISPUTE WILL BE CONDUCTED SOLELY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, AND THAT NEITHER YOU NOR COMPANY WILL SEEK TO HAVE ANY DISPUTE HEARD AS A CLASS ACTION, A REPRESENTATIVE ACTION, A COLLECTIVE ACTION, A PRIVATE ATTORNEY-GENERAL ACTION, OR IN ANY PROCEEDING IN WHICH YOU OR COMPANY ACTS OR PROPOSES TO ACT IN A REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY. YOU AND COMPANY FURTHER AGREE THAT NO PROCEEDING WILL BE JOINED, CONSOLIDATED, OR COMBINED WITH ANOTHER PROCEEDING WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF YOU, COMPANY, AND ALL PARTIES TO ANY SUCH PROCEEDING. THIS CLASS ACTION WAIVER COVERS ALL DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND COMPANY AND ALSO INCLUDES ANY DISPUTE BETWEEN YOU AND ANY OFFICER, DIRECTOR, BOARD MEMBER, AGENT, EMPLOYEE, VENDOR, AFFILIATE, OR CLIENT OF COMPANY, IF COMPANY COULD BE LIABLE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, FOR SUCH DISPUTE. THE TERM “DISPUTE” SHALL BE INTERPRETED AS BROADLY AS PERMITTED UNDER THE LAW AND SHALL APPLY TO ALL PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE LEGAL DISPUTES AND LEGAL CLAIMS BETWEEN YOU AND COMPANY THAT ARE NOW IN EXISTENCE OR THAT MAY ARISE IN THE FUTURE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO LEGAL DISPUTES OR LEGAL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING IN ANY WAY TO THESE TERMS, THE COLLECTION OF FACIAL SCANS OR BIOMETRIC INFORMATION, THE PRIVACY POLICY OR COMPANY’S SERVICES; YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH COMPANY; YOUR USE OF ANY COMPANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE; COMPANY’S CONDUCT; AND ANY FEDERAL, STATE, OR LOCAL STATUTE, LAW, RULE, REGULATION OR ORDINANCE APPLICABLE TO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOU AND COMPANY AS TO WHICH A COURT WOULD BE AUTHORIZED BY LAW TO GRANT RELIEF IF THE CLAIM WERE SUCCESSFUL (“DISPUTE” OR “DISPUTES”).

Information submitted by users can be retained up to three years. This data might be used to track the user's identity or to train AI models. Examples of data collected are:

• Name and contact information
• Demographic data
• Uploaded files
• Government documents, barcodes and identifiers
• Audio, videos and images

Persona provides their services to products and services like social media or video games.

Persona has raised privacy concerns due to the extensive amount of data they collect and process to verify an user's identity. According to their Privacy Policy, this is the type of data they collect^[7]:

You may directly provide:

• Name and contact information, including name, email address, address, and phone number;

• Demographic data, including birthdate and age;

• Files you upload, such as tax forms and utility bills;

• Government documents, barcodes, and identifiers, such as driver's license and Social Security Number; and

• Audio, Video, and Photos of you, namely from the selfie or video you provide and from your government identification document.

The Privacy Policy also mentions additional data that might be collected by third-parties^[7]:

Our Services may also collect the following from you, our Customer, or third parties:

• Current and previous name and contact information, including name, email address, address, and phone number;

• Demographic data, including birthdate and age, gender, marital status, and similar demographic details;

• Government documents, barcodes, and identifiers, such as drivers license and Social Security Numbers;

• Device information, including IP address, device type, your device’s operating system, browser, cookie and device identifiers, and other software including type, version, language, settings, and configuration;

• Account information, such as details about your account with our Customer or other third parties;

• Publicly available data, including data from governmental public records, the public internet and social media;

• Geolocation data as we may infer your general geographic location (such as city, state, and country) based on your IP address;

• Biometric Data, only with your express consent, including a scan of your facial geometry based on the photos or video you provide. For more information about Biometric Data, see the Facial Scan and Biometrics Information section below.

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Persona category.

Children were being identified as adults and vice versa on Roblox.^[8] The age verification restricted who the users could talk to. This implementation was criticised as not helping to address safety concerns, and harming the user experience.^[9]

On the 16th of February, 2026, a security researcher known as Celeste published an article showing that Persona was building profiles on users and sharing said profiles with the US government, even having a flagging system to flag users that seem suspicious. A code to track cypto-addresses has also been found.^[10][11] Alongside that, it was also discovered that 269 different checks were used for verification, which included things like phone carrier queries and death record matching. With their privacy policy hiding these checks under vague terms like "public government documents".^[12]

• Identity Verification (2021)
• Age Verification (2025)

Persona provides their service to these companies and products:^[13]

These are third parties that can receive and use the data provided by Persona:^[15]

• Online Safety Act
• Age Verification
• Discord / 5CA Data Breach