Mastodawn

#Persona, a Peter #Thiel of #Palantir fame funded provider of identity and age verification services for companies like #Discord and the entire #UK, left their code base open to the web. Of course they did.

Let’s look at what it does, shall we?

The platform performs 269 individual verification checks on user data, far beyond basic age verification.

#Surveillance: Persona’s system screens users against global watchlists, including those for #terrorism, #espionage, and politically exposed persons (#PEPs), using facial recognition and risk scoring. Researchers confirmed that the government-facing and consumer-facing versions of Persona use the same underlying code, suggesting a unified surveillance infrastructure.

Data Retention: Personal data including government ID, phone numbers, names, faces, selfies, IP addresses, browser fingerprints, and device fingerprints—is collected and retained for up to three years.
(1/2) edit hashtags, new info, typo

Show thread

MissConstrue Feb 21

#Persona leak continued (2/2)

Integration with Government Systems: The platform is capable of filing Suspicious Activity Reports (#SARs) directly to #FinCEN (U.S. Treasury) and #FINTRAC (Canada), and integrates with blockchain analytics tools like #Chainalysis to monitor cryptocurrency addresses.

Suspicious Checks: Some checks, like "SelfieSuspiciousEntityDetection" and "SelfiePoseRepeatedDetection", lack clear definitions of what constitutes a "suspicious" face or repeated pose, raising concerns about bias and opacity.

This is a big deal. I’ve been telling y’all that age verification was just a way to gather intelligence.

https://www.therage.co/persona-age-verification/

Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web

Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet.

The Rage

Show thread

Sin Vega

@MissConstrue no, you're wrong. Clearly every corporation and their politicians are suddenly pushing hard to "protect the kids" after nearly 3 decades of widespread internet without it is to protect the kids, and not because they have the infrastructure in place to use it to dial up oppression