By Deepak Tewari, Founder & CEO of Privately

Filip Verley started with the simple one: what problem does Privately solve? We do age estimation, and we do it on the device. We make it easy for platforms and orchestrators to run age assurance globally, for a wide variety of users, in a cost-effective and privacy-preserving manner. In shops, it runs on the tablets the store already has, and it works with no internet connection. We put five age-check options into one app, on iOS and Android, and set it up for each market's rules.

We thought people would accept it easily

Filip asked which assumption about our market turned out to be wrong. Ours was that age assurance is a relatively harmless thing to do, and that people would accept it very easily.

They didn't. There is a really big pushback from people about what happens to their data. And that affects us too, because even though we do everything in a privacy-preserving manner, that is not how the market perceives us.

So we have had to go that extra mile to explain how we exist and how our solutions actually work. Our age checks are anonymous. No images are collected or transmitted from the user's device, and no personal data is kept. There is nothing to intercept, breach or subpoena.

Going the extra mile also means not asking anyone to take our word for it. We had our solutions checked by people other than us: Privately is certified to ISO/IEC 27566-1:2025 and rated Highly Effective, UK GDPR certified under UKAS scheme 21037, evaluated by NIST and audited by the ICO.

The data privacy question is staring you in the face

On the trade-off buyers still underestimate, my answer was data privacy. Large platforms have had to really recalibrate how they do age assurance, particularly with children, and the question driving it is whether people's data is being uploaded to some kind of server at all.

You don't have to wait to get fined before you wake up to this reality. On the day we recorded, I had heard of another fine for an age assurance provider. This is happening on a daily basis. And a lot of the market is still built the old way: Liminal's own research found that 41% of age verification solutions rely on full KYC processes that can take up to 24 hours.

So if you are an orchestrator, or a provider of this technology, the data privacy question is staring you in the face. Our answer is evidence-based compliance. Every Privately check is logged as evidence that it happened, and no personal data records are kept. You can show a regulator that you checked, without building a store of faces and documents that becomes your next problem.

There is a fatigue coming

Then Filip asked what will matter more over the next 12 to 18 months than most people are preparing for. I think it is the change in public perception.

Right now people are very focused on the compliance part of the story. They want to put the tech out there and move on. But consumers are getting to a point where they ask: how many checks will I have to do? How many times will I have to validate myself?

There is a fatigue coming. As an industry, we have to be a little more compassionate to the users who go through all of this, and make their life easier by asking them to do fewer checks.

I know that goes contrary to our business model. But that is the reality. The market doesn't have to hit that fatigue button.

And the hill I will die on

The last question was the small hill I am willing to die on. There is a certain way of putting utensils in a dishwasher, at a certain angle, with the forks, knives and spoons separated. Either you know it or you don't. If you don't, then you have a problem. Filip admitted he doesn't know it. We can talk about it.

The full interview is three minutes long, and it is on Liminal's site.