Biometric Age Verification Protects Online Privacy in UK

“For anyone with the Yoti app, their account will serve as sufficient proof of age, confirming that they are over 18 without revealing their date of birth.”

Thanks to Yoti, UK adults are now able to look at pornography anonymously. The company is teaming up with the age verification system AgeID to allow people to verify their age and access restricted material without needing to provide any personal information.

The partnership is a response to the UK’s Digital Economy Act, which was initially slated to go into effect on July 15, but has been delayed due to administrative oversight. The law will require people to prove that they are over the age of 18 in order to access any website with adult content, and is largely designed to keep pornography out of the hands of children.

However, it also raises privacy concerns for adults, who may not wish to be associated with legal but potentially embarrassing online habits, especially in the case of a hack or data breach. Many age verification systems require a credit card, a driver’s license, a phone number, or some other concrete identifier that some consumers may be reticent to share.

Yoti and AgeID are solving that problem. For anyone with the Yoti app, their account will serve as sufficient proof of age, confirming that they are over 18 without revealing their date of birth. Those without the app can still use ProveMyAge, which uses Yoti’s facial recognition tech to estimate someone’s age based on a selfie. The feature does not require the input of any identifying information, and will grant access to anyone deemed to be older than 25.

Yoti has previously been used for proof of age for restricted goods like tobacco and alcohol, both online and in person. The emphasis on discretion is also in keeping with Yoti’s broader commitment to privacy, while its age estimation software has previously been deployed to protect Yubo’s youth-oriented social media platform.  

(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)