this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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217
3 Hackers Just Exposed The Truth Behind Age Checks (media.fedia.io)
submitted 3 weeks ago by atro_city@fedia.io to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The age checks countries are trying to add will just send all the data to the US.

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top 12 comments
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[โ€“] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 62 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Firm that verifies mugshots for ChatGPT and Roblox feeds US surveillance apparatus with 269 distinct checks

Every selfie or ID you upload to ChatGPT, Roblox, LinkedIn, and many other sites for verification is handled by a San Francisco firm called Persona. A massive leak has exposed its other side โ€“ a platform capable of feeding the US government with 269 sophisticated surveillance checks on millions of users worldwide.

A security researcher at vmfunc.re, who goes by the alias Celeste, discovered exposed infrastructure belonging to Persona, the identity verification company used by ChatGPT and other major services.

Persona also runs a platform authorized by FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program), offering federal agencies โ€œto verify usersโ€™ identitiesโ€ in over 200 countries, detect fraud, and ensure regulatory compliance.โ€

Celeste claims they obtained the entire dashboard codebase from the ONYX government deployment โ€œapp.onyx.withpersona-gov.com,โ€ which was left unprotected and publicly exposed.

[โ€“] unknowablenight@piefed.social 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Not saying this is false, but can you send a link to an article that discusses this? The man in the video didn't.

[โ€“] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[โ€“] unknowablenight@piefed.social 7 points 3 weeks ago

My bad! I didn't see that, sorry.

[โ€“] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 38 points 3 weeks ago

The original actual post by the researchers is here if anyone wants to know more about the actual details!

https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona/ (turn off your audio or mute the tab if you have regular speakers because it will just start randomly playing stuff if you don't lmao)

[โ€“] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 22 points 3 weeks ago

I hope this didn't come as a surprise to anyone.

[โ€“] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

We need to replace these age checks with tools that help parents/guardians block inappropriate online content for their children. Anything else is inefficient, ultimately dystopian, or both.

[โ€“] KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 weeks ago

We need to erase these age checks and the culture that encourages them. I will continue to say thisโ€”unfettered internet access does far more Good than Harm; especially in this climate.

[โ€“] atro_city@fedia.io 4 points 3 weeks ago

What we need is ongoing, free education after school. For many it just stops. People should have gotten digital competency classes with every new wave of applications and then taught that to their children.

Schools also spectacularly fail at preparing people for life after school in any way digital. Most just indoctrinate you to use one single product, not how to use a computer in general. Kids exit school only knowing "Microslop Excel" not how spreadsheets work or what they're good for e.g balancing a budget, keeping track of expenses, weighing options, etc.

Education is also a very large and important part of the answer.

[โ€“] RamenJunkie@midwest.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, but also there are a LOT of parents that are worse for kids than age checks as far as access to information goes. And not for some normal "protrct the children" level of reason, but for "Everything that makes me uncomfortable is SATAN!" reasons.

[โ€“] rogsson@piefed.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

Never. Verify. Your. Identity. Online.ย