this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Steam asking you Everytime means they ACTUALLY are deleting private details you give them, and only store them locally so you have full control over how long they know.
This is literally the fucking exact ideal way this should be handled. Why the fuck would you be upset over literally the most consumer way possible to handle age verification.
No one sane is going to pretend we don't need some form of verification. Even if it is just lip service for legal purposes. 10 year olds should a have at least a check to be like hay this isn't for you ask Mom and dad first. So parents can also be aware there IS something for them to be aware of.
You can't expect parents to be omniscient after all.
So having companies actually respect data privacy and control, and give appropriate warnings is literally exactly what we want.
They are not though, deleting the information. They are just not keeping it in that part of the system.
Anytime you think they are deleting your information, ask yourself, is that information valuable to them? The answer is always yes. Then ask, why would they delete it? Why would they not keep it secretly or otherwise? They would, they always do.
Which doesn't even address the point that other interests got that information when you gave it to steam. You verifying your age is information the national security state would sweep up, but possibly others, to say nothing of hackers targeting the company holding the data. Some of whom are the national security state.
Actually, if it would be possible to somehow ask parents beforehand, it probably would be perfect.
Say, you register an internet connection and sign an email that will receive requests from DNS upon visiting explicit sites. Whenever you visit these sites, you get an email with a "Confirm" button. Let's say it has 1 hour cooldown before sending request for the same domain again. In case your child dials up pornhub, you have a choice + you know they are trying to access something meant for adults.
As for open access points, they already been using DNS sinkholes and are totally not for NSFW stuff anyway, so all access denied by default.
No ID needed aside of signing up for an internet connection which already requires an ID anyway. Everyone is happy. No idea if it is possible.
Because it's like asking you for an ID to purchase alcohol. And you're standing there with a full beard, some wrinkles in your skin and having an aged look. It's insulting.
But I guess you wouldn't know that because OMGVALVE!!
Oh no, I pissed off the angry little children and their alts. What won't I do? :(
Tangential, but if it is enforced (alchohol has good reason to do so) it should be enforced impartially regardless of how you look, otherwise it's discrimination. My comment is based on my Asian looking experience.
so... you do want face verification for online interactions?
edit: In-person, for a "regulated" substance - it seems reasonable to require that proof be checked as part of policy, regardless of appearance. There's no storage (in most cases) and the cashier is the only one who looks at the ID and they are supposed to do it to keep their job. The only place I've seen recently where your ID is actually tracked is stuff like sudafed, where buying too much makes you a potential meth maker.
Online, the rule has been "trust me, bro" forever. There's no person testing you, aside from maybe a paywall to ensure you have a credit card as an age check. Steam is doing the online equivalent of minimal validation and minimal retention that the booze store is.
This is hardly OMGVALVE.
Anytime they scan your id the information is stored. They know you went into that store and bought alcohol. If you think they aren't storing that information, I've an exciting investment opportunity for you.
It doesn't matter if the schlepps at the store don't see the information stored and don't retain a record, obviously they wouldn't.
I hear that. My local ABC store doesn't scan my ID, though I don't see a future where they don't eventually scan every time; and my local grocery store scans occasionally, but not always.
I can't just not buy age-verified products, though, because sometimes it's cold medicine or a prescription. **
Back to the original thread, this is not a Discord problem, this is a privacy problem. We need to push back on data capture in general and tell legislators that privacy is important to all people, even those who buy booze.
** could we make little sneaky stickers that obfuscate the barcode enough to prevent it scanning? The cashier would likely revert to visual inspection without the data retention: face matches photo, age is good, override.
Wait, there are still ABC stores?