ANNEX B - Zero Knowledge Proofs for the Age Verification Solution - EU Age Verification Blueprint — the dedicated technical portal

The limits of zero-knowledge for age-verification | Brave

ZKPs are often advanced as a technical remedy, promising privacy-preserving attestations of age or eligibility. Yet their deployment in practice exposes both conceptual and practical limits.

Private Age Assurance

Private age assurance for Bluesky using zero-knowledge proofs

Exploring Privacy-Preserving Age Verification: A Close Look at Zero-Knowledge Proofs

A path toward protecting young people online that doesn’t sacrifice their privacy or data security, amid persistent concerns about screen time.

Age verification needs better privacy protections, report says

New America’s Open Technology Institute called for the use of zero-knowledge proofs, which verify a user’s age without disclosing any personal information.

Decentralized Identity Verification using Zero-Knowledge Proofs: A Privacy-Preserving Authentication Framework

In the contemporary online interaction, digital iden- tity is central, but most systems follow a centralized provider like Google or Facebook. Although convenient, these models pose ma- jor risks to data breach, surveillance, and single point of failure. The proposed paper proposes a privacy-sensitive decentralized identity verification system that uses Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) to allow users to make it through claims (e.g., age, citizen- ship, or enrollment) without any personal data being provided, thereby solving the challenges outlined in the paper. Our architecture integrates verifiable credentials, zero-knowledge-SNARKs and an issuer trust registry that is maintained on blockchain smart contracts to guarantee trustless verification and eliminate dependence on centralized authorities. Its system gives its users full control over credentials, allows reuse across applications, and does not expose data.A proof-of-concept implementation has shown the approach to be feasible with Circom and SnarkJS to generate proof, Solidity smart contracts to verify them, and a user interface implemented in React. Results of the evaluations showed that determination of the verification latency is low, the overhead to generate proofs is moderate, and no privacy leakage occurs. It can be used in potential applications such as education, e-governance, healthcare, finance, and online voting.

Zero Knowledge Proofs Alone Are Not a Digital ID Solution to

In the past few years, governments across the world have rolled out digital identification options, and now there are efforts encouraging online companies to implement identity and age verification

google/longfellow-zk

Implementation of the Google Zero-Knowledge library for Identity Protocols.

European Age Verification Solution

The European Commission is developing a harmonized, EU-wide approach to age verification, accompanied by a comprehensive age verification blueprint that is intended to facilitate practical adoption across all Member States and can be customised to the national context. Built upon the robust European Digital Identity Wallet framework, this user-friendly and privacy-preserving age verification solution enables individuals to demonstrate their eligibility for age-restricted online services, such as those restricted to adults, without disclosing more personal information than absolutely necessary. By design, the solution addresses and supports compliance with Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, helping online service providers meet legal requirements for age checks while safeguarding user privacy.

Age Verification in the Context of the EUDI Wallet: Balancing Privacy and Security

As digital identity solutions become increasingly prevalent, the necessity for robust age verification mechanisms has emerged as a critical concern for a range of services, from online transactions to access to age-restricted content. Current age verification methods often fall short of accommodating the diverse standards across jurisdictions, leading to vulnerabilities and inconsistencies in user experience. One of the main objectives of this study is to identify and analyze in a systematic way existing age verification methods and the main relevant international regulatory frameworks. The Age Verification Profile by the European Commission is including and exploring Zero-Knowledge Proof-based solutions for age verification, which are also considered in the EUDI Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework. This approach not only minimizes data privacy risks but also facilitates seamless digital interactions across the European Union. This paper primarily aims to explore the critical role of the European Digital Identity Wallet Architecture and Reference Framework in age verification and demonstrate that the EUDI Wallet seeks to enhance the security and efficiency of online transactions by introducing robust age verification mechanisms that effectively balance user privacy, security, and compliance with various regulatory requirements while preventing unauthorized access to services with age restrictions, which is in line with the broader objectives of the European Digital Identity initiative. Furthermore, we examine the European Union's age verification approach via the EUDI Wallet and the U.S. framework approach, conducting a comparative analysis between them that highlights key differences in architectural design and legal underpinnings and emphasizes their advantages.

Age Verification Architecture

This document describes solution-agnostic and technology-neutral schema for how various intermediaries can gate content and services based on age. The analysis of the architecture is done along two dimensions: the efficacy of permitting or restricting access based on age, and the privacy cost of doing so. The document concludes with recommendations as well as critical privacy, security and human rights considerations.

The Dangers of Age Verification Provisions

One proposed solution to ensuring safe youth online experiences is age verification provisions, which require platforms to confirm the ages

ZKPROV: A Zero-Knowledge Approach to Dataset Provenance for Large Language Models

As large language models (LLMs) are used in sensitive fields, accurately verifying their computational provenance without disclosing their training datasets poses a significant challenge, particularly in regulated sectors such as healthcare, which have strict requirements for dataset use. Traditional approaches either incur substantial computational cost to fully verify the entire training process or leak unauthorized information to the verifier. Therefore, we introduce ZKPROV, a novel cryptographic framework allowing users to verify that the LLM's responses to their prompts are trained on datasets certified by the authorities that own them. Additionally, it ensures that the dataset's content is relevant to the users' queries without revealing sensitive information about the datasets or the model parameters. ZKPROV offers a unique balance between privacy and efficiency by binding training datasets, model parameters, and responses, while also attaching zero-knowledge proofs to the responses generated by the LLM to validate these claims. Our experimental results demonstrate sublinear scaling for generating and verifying these proofs, with end-to-end overhead under 3.3 seconds for models up to 8B parameters, presenting a practical solution for real-world applications. We also provide formal security guarantees, proving that our approach preserves dataset confidentiality while ensuring trustworthy dataset provenance.

Age Assurance Methods Explained

This blog also appears in our Age Verification Resource Hub: our one-stop shop for users seeking to understand what age-gating laws actually do, what’s at stake, how to protect yourself, and why EFF

The Age Verification Privacy Paradox: Why Document Uploads Hurt Everyone—and How World Solves It

Age verification is now required by many digital platforms worldwide, but most systems create new risks for user data and privacy. This article explores why document-based age verification exposes everyone to greater risk—and how privacy-first technology like World ID offers a safer path for consumers and platforms.