All posts tagged: age verification

A hotel check-in system left a million passports and driver’s licenses open for anyone to see

A hotel check-in system left a million passports and driver’s licenses open for anyone to see

Published by skeptic

A hotel check-in system left more than 1 million customer passports, driver’s licenses, and selfie verification photos to the open web after a security lapse. The data is now offline after TechCrunch alerted the company responsible. The hotel check-in system, called Tabiq, is maintained by the Japan-based tech startup Reqrea. According to its website, Tabiq is used in several hotels across Japan and relies on facial recognition and document scanning to check guests in. Independent security researcher Anurag Sen contacted TechCrunch earlier this week after discovering that the system was leaking the sensitive documents of hotel guests from around the world. Sen said this was because the startup set one of its Amazon cloud-hosted storage buckets, which the check-in system uses to store customer data, to be publicly accessible. The data inside could be viewed by anyone using a web browser, without needing a password, by knowing only the bucket name: “tabiq.”  Sen alerted TechCrunch in an effort to help notify the company. Reqrea locked down the storage bucket after TechCrunch reached out to both …

Here’s how Roblox’s age checks work

Here’s how Roblox’s age checks work

Published by skeptic

A month after introducing mandatory facial verification for access to chats on its platform, Roblox says 45% of its daily active users have undergone age checks as of January 31. Roblox’s launch of age checks followed a wave of lawsuits over child safety, including ones from the attorneys general of Texas, Kentucky, and Louisiana. The lawsuits were filed in response to reports that Roblox was exposing young users to dangerous risks, such as grooming and explicit content. To complete the age-check process, users have to open the Roblox app, allow access to their camera, and follow a series of on-screen instructions for facial verification. The verification is processed by a third-party vendor, Persona, which deletes images and videos after completing the process, Roblox says. Once users complete an age check, they can access age-based chats, which means they can only communicate with others in a similar age group. There are six age groups: under 9, 9 to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20, and 21 plus. Users in each age group can chat with people in the …