Discord cuts ties with Peter Thiel-backed verification software after its code was found tied to U.S. surveillance efforts

Discord terminated its partnership with Peter Thiel-backed Persona Identities, an age-verification software, after exposed code raised concerns about U.S. surveillance efforts. Researchers discovered nearly 2,500 accessible files on a U.S. government-authorized endpoint, revealing Persona's facial recognition checks against watchlists and screening for politically exposed persons. Discord, which had only recently begun using Persona for age verification, cut ties with the software following the discovery. Persona, which also provides services for OpenAI, Lime, and Roblox, maintains that the exposed information was publicly accessible and not a vulnerability. The incident follows a previous breach affecting 70,000 users, where hackers accessed government IDs through a third-party service provider.