Good news, UK Discord users, we’re part of a Peter Thiel-linked data collection “experiment”

Discord have belatedly confirmed that they’re working with Persona, an identity detection firm backed by a fund directed by Palantir chairman Peter Thiel, as part of Discord’s new global age verification system rollout. The collaboration is described as an “experiment” involving people in the UK specifically, whereby Persona will store user information on their servers for up to seven days.

Always good when your personal data forms part of an “experiment”, isn’t it? Never mind that Discord assured us earlier that “identity documents submitted to our vendors are deleted quickly–in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.” Discord haven’t yet said what the “experiment” is supposed to explore or prove. I’m sure it’s fine, though. It’s not like Thiel joints have a track record of working with any bloodthirsty snoops.

Following the announcement of Discord’s new age verification policy – already in force in the UK and Australia, with a global rollout beginning in early March – social media users shared screengrabs of prompts to consent to Persona collecting their data over the weekend. Discord then sought to calm the flames by updating their site FAQ with the below disclaimer:

“If you’re located in the UK, you may be part of an experiment where your information will be processed by an age-assurance vendor, Persona. The information you submit will be temporarily stored for up to 7 days, then deleted. For ID document verification, all details are blurred except your photo and date of birth, so only what’s truly needed for age verification is used.”

Many Discord users were already hopping mad about the new “age assurance” system, which involves face scan videos and a machine learning model, and the revelation of Persona’s involvement only made them madder, with critical coverage appearing in Kotaku, Eurogamer and cheery RPS fanzine PCGamer. The FAQ disclaimer has now vanished (here’s an older version preserved by the Wayback Machine).

As PCGamer note, Persona’s lead investors during two recent rounds of venture capital funding were Founders Fund, who valued them at $1.5 billion in 2021. The Founders Fund was co-founded by Peter Thiel in 2020. Aside from being a well-heeled Doomsday cultist and frequent Epstein correspondent, Peter Thiel is one of the moneymen behind omni-payment platform Paypal and, more recently, Palantir, a godawful work of Saruman fan fiction that specialises in using AI for government and military surveillance.

Palantir have, among other things, worked extensively with the USA’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, to track undocumented migrants, amid allegations of human rights breaches that include the recent killing of an ICU nurse. The UK government have commissioned Palantir to make a patient database for the NHS, despite much opposition from doctors. I know children aren’t responsible for the sins of their parents, but it doesn’t seem wholly irrelevant here that Palantir’s UK division is headed by Oswald Mosley’s grandson.

All told, I would prefer not to participate in any identity verification “experiment” bearing Thiel’s fingerprints, particularly not one that uses machine learning to check your identity in the background. And this is before we get into Discord’s recent history of privacy breaches involving third parties.