Yoti age checks share facial photos and device fingerprints with third parties
Key takeaways
- This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies.
- The research team examined Yoti, a London-based company that provides age-verification services for an estimated 60% of websites that require it.
- The research team determined that the process Yoti uses to verify a person's age broadcasts the person's personal information to third- and fourth-party companies.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:
Add as preferred source Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain New cybersecurity research indicates that one of the world's leading age verification providers collects and shares highly sensitive personal data—including facial photos and device fingerprints—with third parties. The research also reveals that most websites that require age verification don't enforce the policy.
The findings come from a new study, "Papers Please: A First Look at Age Verification on the Web," that researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) presented on May 20 at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP 2026) conference in San Francisco.