Persona and ConnectID Deliver Privacy-First Age Verification for the Australian Market

SAN FRANCISCO, April 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Persona, a leading global infrastructure provider, today announced its integration with ConnectID®, an Australian digital identity network, to help businesses navigate age-compliance regulations. This integration enables organizations to verify the age of Australian users while ensuring personal data remains protected.

Australia's under-16 social media legislation requires adherence to strict regulatory guidelines, reinforcing the importance of digital safety and making privacy-by-design a key element of age assurance. Persona's ConnectID integration allows users to verify their age through existing enrollment information from trusted financial institutions with the need to share sensitive identification documents like passports or driver's licenses with the requesting social media platform.

Key features of this integration include:

• No Sensitive Data Visibility: Persona nor ConnectID ever sees or stores any sensitive personal information.
• Data Minimization: Only specific, necessary age claims, such as "Over 16" or "Over 18" confirmation, are shared with the business to finalize a transaction. Identity documents are not uploaded or shared with the business, and personal data – not even a name or date of birth – does not leave the bank, ensuring privacy and anonymity for all age assurance transactions.

"We are incredibly excited to continue supporting industry leaders in the navigation of complex age assurance rollouts globally," said Daniel Lee, Product Manager at Persona. "By integrating ConnectID into the Persona platform, we are empowering our partners to meet rigorous local standards with privacy-first methods."

For end users, the process is designed using familiar interfaces to allow for minimal friction. During a transaction requiring age assurance, users can select their preferred bank from a list of participating providers, including CommBank, NAB, ANZ Plus, and Westpac. Authentication then occurs securely using a recognizable interface from their trusted banking app following permission to share confirmation that they meet the age requirement (e.g., "16+").

"Our priority is to protect young people online without creating new privacy risks," said Rick Iversen, Head of ConnectID. "By acting as a secure bridge between banks and online platforms, we're enabling organizations to responsibly meet new obligations under the social media legislation, while keeping sensitive personal data entirely out of the process."

Age verification using ConnectID provides an alternative method to traditional ID-based solutions, allowing users to verify their age without the need to hand over copies of personal identification such as driver's licenses and passports. This method is twofold, reducing the risk of oversharing sensitive user personal data while removing the risk and cost for businesses associated with storing such data.

Persona's age assurance solution ensures businesses can maintain high assurance and compliance while protecting end users. By adding ConnectID to its industry-leading suite of age assurance methods, Persona continues to empower customers to create a flexible, privacy-first user experience for age assurance.

Both Persona and ConnectID participated in the 2025 Australian Age Assurance Technology Trial that examined options to protect children from harmful content. The two providers were assessed at some of the highest technology readiness levels, demonstrating deployment readiness in Australia.

About Persona
Founded in 2018, Persona is headquartered in San Francisco and is available in 200+ countries and territories. Persona helps leading organizations like Substack implement privacy-centric age assurance that meets compliance requirements in Australia and globally. Companies are able to meet compliance with multiple methods to estimate, infer, and verify age, without adding friction to the user life cycle.

Persona's age assurance technology has undergone multiple third-party audits and certifications, including the Australian Age Assurance Technology Trial. The security- and privacy-first approach to design also aligns with the core principles of the ISO/IEC 27566 framework.

About ConnectID
ConnectID is an Australian-owned digital identity solution which makes it easier for customers to verify who they are, using organisations they already trust. ConnectID does not see or store any data, it simply acts as the bridge that connects businesses to trusted and reliable identity data with customer consent, giving individuals more control over how their information is used and shared. 

ConnectID was the first non-government identity exchange accredited by the Australian Government and is supported by major Australian banks. ConnectID is part of Australian Payments Plus (AP+), which also operates Australia's domestic payments infrastructure – including the eftpos debit network, BPAY bill payments, and the NPP (the country's real-time payments system).

For more information, visit connectid.com.au

ConnectID is a registered trademark of ConnectID Pty Ltd ABN 80 648 970 101.

SOURCE Persona