As you may know, Discord will soon require users to submit their ID and undergo AI-based facial age estimation. Without ID verification, your ability to use Discord may be limited, including the inability to speak in Stage channels.
According to Discord:
“Quick deletion: Identity documents submitted to our vendor partners are deleted quickly — in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.”
This means your ID will be stored on a third-party system if you choose to verify your age, and you may even be required to use multiple verification methods if Discord requests additional information.
⚠️ Privacy and Security Risks
Undergoing ID verification can pose risks to your privacy (and in some cases, even your safety). Many incidents have demonstrated these risks, including Discord itself, where more than 70,000 government IDs (according to Discord; different numbers were claimed by the alleged attackers) were exposed following unauthorized access to Discord’s Zendesk instance.
There are still unanswered questions about whether the IDs were stored unencrypted (in plaintext) within that system.
The moral of this situation: it is not necessarily safer and more dangerous for your privacy.
✊ Your Choice as a Customer
As a customer, you can choose to boycott and refuse to verify your age so that the update may potentially be reconsidered or reverted globally.
As a privacy-focused organization, we fully understand the concerns about privacy, which is why we will open a new Matrix group (a privacy-focused alternative to Discord) for those who are considering leaving Discord because of this measure.
Don’t worry — we will set up a Matrix–Discord bridge to this Discord server.
🛡️ Stay Safe
Stay safe and protect your privacy!