Articles
Articles
Feb 27, 2025
The Government announces identity checks for online knife sales
The UK Government is tightening regulations on online knife sales to prevent underage access and enhance public safety. As part of this, the Home Office has published an independent report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). The report explores the current practices in the market and sets out some recommendations for how to strengthen online knife sales. Here’s a snapshot of some of the proposed changes: Report suspicious purchases: retailers will need to report suspicious purchases to the police. Increased penalties and jail sentences: penalties for selling knives to under-18s will increase from 6 months to up to
Articles
Feb 25, 2025
Thoughts from our CEO
In this blog series, our CEO Robin Tombs will be sharing his experience, whilst focusing on major themes, news and issues in the world of identity verification and age assurance. This month, Robin talks about the future of digital IDs in the UK, his hopes for our Digital ID network and thresholds for facial age estimation. Visions for digital IDs in the UK Tony Blair recently stated in The Times that high adoption of reusable digital ID in the UK is inevitable. But that’s only half of the digital ID story. He says, “Digital ID is a personal
Articles
Feb 19, 2025
Deepfake attacks: Rising fraud trends and our experience in preventing them
In 2024, we witnessed a significant increase in the number of deepfake attacks, or injection attacks during age and identity verification checks. The percentage of attacks increased from 1.6% to 3.9%. In absolute terms, this is a significant rise in the total number of attacks we have detected as we significantly expanded our services in 2024. We now perform over 5 million checks per week across all our services. With the introduction of various regulations globally, companies have been obliged to implement more robust age or identity checks for their users. We have seen injection attacks across identity verification
Articles
Feb 13, 2025
Defining age verification and age assurance
Age is becoming an increasingly important focus for governments globally, with legislation being enacted across multiple states and countries. Our latest report looks at: The difference between age verification and age estimation Why self declaration is not age assurance The importance of balancing proportionality and privacy Download
Articles
Feb 12, 2025
An overview of the COPPA updates (and what it means for your business)
The United States Federal Trade Commission has released its updates to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. It aims to strengthen key privacy protections for children online and better reflect the challenges faced in the modern digital age. The updates introduce stricter requirements for the collection, use and sharing of children’s data. However, it’s worth noting that the rule doesn’t include an explicit exception for the use of children’s personal information solely for age verification. This complicates compliance for platforms that wish to implement more robust age checking than self-declaration. Yoti is ready to assist companies with
Articles
Feb 10, 2025
Age assurance for online knife sales
At the end of January, the UK Government announced they will introduce stricter age checks for online knife sales. Buyers will need to submit a copy of their photo ID, such as a driving licence, as well as proof of address, such as a utility bill. The same person who bought the knife will have to show ID again on delivery, and no knife packages can be left on the doorstep. These measures are part of the upcoming Crime and Policing Bill, expected to be introduced in Parliament this Spring. While knife crime is a key focus of the