Persona is an Identity Verification company, founded in 2018 by Rick Song and Charles Yeh. It is funded by Founders Fund which is an adventure capitalist firm c-founded by Peter Theil. [1]
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | |
| Legal Structure | Private |
| Industry | Software |
| Also known as | |
| Official website | https://withpersona.com/ |
From the 14th July 2025 they started working with Reddit to perform ID checks on it's UK site, as part of the UK's Online Safety Act.[2]
In February 2026 Discord announced they would be experimenting with Persona to perform ID checks worldwide.[3]
Consumer-impact summary
User Privacy
Information submitted by users can be retained up to three years. This data might be used to track the user's identity.
Incidents
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Persona category.
AI-Powered Ages Verification leads to inaccurate age verification on Roblox (Jan 2026)
Children were being identified as adults and vice versa on Roblox.[4] The age verification restricted who the users could talk to. This implementation was criticised as not helping to address safety concerns, and harming the user experience.[5]
Persona tracks users
On the 16th of February, 2026, a security researcher known as Celeste published an article showing that Persona was building profiles on users and sharing said profiles with the US government.[6] Alongside that, it was also discovered that 269 different checks were used for verification, which included things like phone carrier queries and death record matching. With their privacy policy hiding these checks under vague terms like "public government documents".[7]
Products
- Identity Verification (2021)
- Age Verification (2025)
Clients
Persona provides their service to these companies and products:
See also
References
- ↑ https://redact.dev/blog/discord-persona-age-verification-experiment
- ↑ "Reddit starts verifying ages of users in the UK". BBC News. 2025-07-14. Retrieved 2026-02-20.
{{cite news}}:|archive-url=requires|archive-date=(help) - ↑ "Discord is rolling out facial scanning and ID checks globally in March for users who don't want to be locked into a 'teen-appropriate experience'". PC Gamer. 2026-02-09. Retrieved 2026-02-20.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Gilbert, David (2026-01-13). "Roblox's AI-Powered Age Verification Is a Complete Mess". Wired.
{{cite web}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help);|archive-url=requires|archive-date=(help); Missing or empty|url=(help) - ↑ "Age Check to Chat Update & Fast Follow Roadmap". https://devforum.roblox.com/. 2026-01-09. Retrieved 2026-01-20.
{{cite web}}: External link in|website= - ↑ https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona
- ↑ https://withpersona.com/legal/privacy-policy-roblox