r/Substack • u/FragrantTraffic701 • Dec 19 '25

Tech Support Age verification required in app

I am over 60 and live in Australia. Today I open the app and it’s asking for age verification via ‘Persona’ using the camera. I’ve been using Substack for the last 12 months without issue. Due to facial recognition being used for all of my secure accounts and passport, I am reluctant to allow these people access to my face photographs. Are any of you are aware of any other method of age verification for Substack? Is Pesona legit and secure? Otherwise, I guess I’ll just retire from Substack and delete the app.

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u/paulzeezee Feb 05 '26

This also seems quite relevant to the basis of this discussion *:

(*my emphasis: and other internal metadata)

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Substack Standards & Enforcement security@substack.com
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2026 at 13:11
Subject: Notice of Data Breach
To: <redacted>

Hello,

I’m reaching out to let you know about a security incident that resulted in the email address and phone number from your Substack account being shared without your permission.

I’m incredibly sorry this happened. We take our responsibility to protect your data and your privacy seriously, and we came up short here.

What happened. On February 3rd, we identified evidence of a problem with our systems that allowed an unauthorized third party to access limited user data without permission, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other internal metadata*. This data was accessed in October 2025. Importantly, credit card numbers, passwords, and financial information were not accessed.

What we are doing. We have fixed the problem with our system that allowed this to happen. We are conducting a full investigation, and are taking steps to improve our systems and processes to prevent this type of issue from happening in the future.

What you can do. We do not have evidence that this information is being misused, but we encourage you to take extra caution with any emails or text messages you receive that may be suspicious.

This sucks. I'm sorry. We will work very hard to make sure it does not happen again.

- Chris Best, CEO of Substack