Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

@mahryekuh @mttaggart

Just look up your ID with @haveibeenpwned to see if you exist or not

I am trying to read this as charitably as possible, if only to clarify my own concerns. There are definitely ways it could be worse. The "video selfie" component of the assurance process is analyzed on-device. But your ID is still sent to a third-party vendor. The claim is that the data is deleted "quickly—in most cases, immediately after age confirmation." But Discord doesn't actually control that; the unnamed third party does.

A spokesperson for Discord has said of the age inference model:

Discord’s age inference model uses account information such as account tenure, device and activity data, and aggregated, high-level patterns across Discord communities. Discord does not use private messages or any message content in this process.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/875309/discord-age-verification-global-roll-out

Account tenure could mean "Are you necessarily an adult assuming you created your account when you turned 13?" As far as device and activity data, that as vague as hell! And without reviewing messages, I don't love the idea that whatever data they're collecting could be used for verification. Whether it works or not, pretty creepy.

And I guess that's where I'm landing here. I have a very public record of being too credulous with these kinds of things in the past. I'm tired of getting burned. I'm tired of my community getting burned. This won't be the last creepy thing Discord pulls out on its road to IPO. I think I'd rather take the next offramp.

@mttaggart Whether you give them the credentials they want or not, the user behavior will be monitored continuously. To say this is about teens is a lie.

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

@mttaggart How is determining someone's age with "high confidence" useful?

I mean, how high is it?

I can determine someone's age with "high confidence" just by asking them about it.

Because most people don't lie.

Surely Age Verification is not that trivial.

@mttaggart On a more serious note, I could imagine them skipping age verification for accounts of a certain age. For example, unless someone created an account when they were 8, then a 10-year-old account would probably belong to an adult.

But other than that, they will surely feed everything to a big AI and have their fun with it.

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

@mttaggart how else would they make money? Not that I want to defend data selling at all, I hate it with a passion, but at some point we need to be asking ourselves what exactly it is we are expecting from for-profit companies.

Discord claims "most users" will never go through an age verification process because they're already monitoring your behavior.

For the majority of adult users, we will be able to confirm your age group using information we already have. We use age prediction to determine, with high confidence, when a user is an adult. This allows many adults to access age-appropriate features without completing an explicit age check.

Gotta say, constant behavior analysis is not the warm and fuzzy blanket they seem to think it is.

https://discord.com/safety/how-discord-is-building-safer-experiences-for-teens

RE: https://left-bank.net/@BlueDot/116053101957177322

@mttaggart

And none of this so-called age inference is actually necessary for verifying someone's age. So I think the cynical assumption---that their actual goal is to collect private information and use it against us---is justified.