🌸 ellie 🌸 on Twitter / X

Exposed Persona Frontend Reveals Extensive Biometric Surveillance Stack Behind Age Verification - ID Tech

Security researchers investigating Discord’s age-verification implementation have discovered a publicly exposed frontend belonging to Persona Identities, Inc., revealing that the identity-verification vendor’s platform performs far more extensive checks than users […]

Moderating With Humans, For Humans - Trust Issues

Moderating With Humans, For Humans - Trust Issues

Security researchers claim Persona, the provider behind Discord's UK age verification 'experiment', performs '269 individual verification checks' on user data, including those for terrorism and espionage

I'm sure this will be well-received.

Astral's Blog

On July 8, Anthropic's updated privacy policy takes effect. Users flagged for potential policy violations will be required to upload a government ID, a selfie or video, and a face geometry template — biometric data processed through Persona, a third-party identity verification company backed by Founders Fund.

Deepfakes, Scams, and the Age of Paranoia

As AI-driven fraud becomes increasingly common, more people feel the need to verify every interaction they have online.

Choosing to Stay Human

If you go to your favorite social media site, you will find it full of posts that start to look suspiciously similar to each other:

sherif.eurosky.social/atmosphere-verification

A project for democratic, ID-free verification for everyone on the AT Protocol

Legally Cognizable Manipulation

Swaths of personal and nonpersonal information collected online about Internet users are increasingly being used in sophisticated ways for online political mani

Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled

New age-verification laws and tools are designed for child safety on social media and the internet, but adults are in the crosshairs, say privacy experts.

Moll on Twitter / X

I love posts like this so much. And it’s true - I think the best, most interesting results come specifically from a connection that isn’t «user and AI», but a human and his partner in thought.When a person simply uses a tool, they essentially remain alone. But when there are… https://t.co/InRvY56631— Moll (@Moleh1ll) June 28, 2026

Bots Among Us - 7hird Thoughts

How can we build trust in an era of bots and lies?

Constructing and enforcing "authentic" identity online: Facebook, real names, and non-normative identities

Despite the participatory and democratic promises of Web 2.0, many marginalized individuals with fluid or non-normative identities continue to struggle to represent themselves online. Facebook users, in particular, are told to use “authentic identities,” an idea reinforced throughout the site’s documentation, “real name” and other policies, and in public statements by company representatives. Facebook’s conception of authenticity and real names, however, has created problems for certain users, as demonstrated by the systematic deactivation of many accounts belonging to transgender and gender variant users, drag queens, Native Americans, abuse survivors, and others. In view of the struggles of marginalized users, Facebook policy appears paradoxical: the site simultaneously demands authenticity yet proscribes certain people from authentic self-presentation. In this work, we examine Facebook’s construction of “authenticity” and show how it excludes multifaceted, fluid, or non-normative identities. Using content analysis and close reading, we analyze site documentation and data from The Zuckerberg Files (an online archive of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s public remarks) to understand the platform’s mechanisms for enforcing authenticity. We find that Facebook positions itself as a type of administrative identity registrar, raising vital questions regarding the ethics and consequences of identity enforcement online today.