Even if age verification laws require data deletion, you have to trust every website and third-party verifier will actually do it. That's a lot of faith to place in companies with spotty track records—and a risk that doesn't exist in-person when a bartender just glances at your ID.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Why Isn’t Online Age Verification Just Like Showing Your ID In Person?

This blog also appears in our Age Verification Resource Hub: our one-stop shop for users seeking to understand what age-gating laws actually do, wh...

EFF obtained datasets representing more than 12 million searches logged by more than 3,900 agencies between 2024 and 2025. The data shows that agencies logged hundreds of searches related to the 50501, Hands Off, and No Kings protests, among other protests in between.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

How Cops Are Using Flock Safety's ALPR Network to Surveil Protesters and Activists

Through an analysis of 10 months of nationwide searches on Flock Safety's servers, we discovered that more than 50 federal, state, and local a...