Discord Faces Privacy Backlash Over UK Age Verification Changes

Overview

Discord, a core platform for gaming communities, is embroiled in controversy over privacy policy changes related to its UK age verification system. Users are criticizing this as a "privacy bait-and-switch."

Key Details

Discord introduced age verification to comply with the UK government's Online Safety Act. The issue arose when they switched from their previous data handling vendor to a new company called Persona.

Users have raised the following concerns:

Requirement to provide ID documents and facial recognition data to a third-party vendor

Unclear data retention periods and usage purposes

Data handling practices that differ from previous commitments

Policy changes forced without user choice

Community Response

The issue gained significant attention with over 2,700 upvotes on the r/pcgaming community. Many users are considering migrating to alternative platforms and questioning Discord's trustworthiness.

Critics argue that Discord, an essential communication tool for gamers, is failing to balance privacy protection with regulatory compliance.