The internet was never built with identity in mind. In 2025, that omission is becoming catastrophic.
From state-level age verification mandates to rampant fraud and trust breakdowns, the digital economy is coming undone at its seams. Websites now ask for passport uploads to view adult content. Biometric scans gate access to gaming and creator platforms. And any app catering to regulated industries is weighed down by fragmented, jurisdiction-specific compliance logic.
We are living in a world of copy-pasted identity forms, siloed databases, and “verify once, forget never” policies. The problem? There is no shared, privacy-respecting way to prove who you are online.
I. A Patchwork That No Longer Works
The current identity ecosystem online is fragile and fragmented. Most platforms handle identity on a per-application basis. That means when you verify your age on a streaming site, it doesn’t carry over to a forum, a shop, or a game. Even within the same brand ecosystem, age and identity checks are often duplicated, clunky, and error-prone.
Meanwhile, regulators are stepping in to plug the gaps:
- Utah’s SB 287 and Texas’ HB 1181 demand age verification for adult content using government-issued ID.
- The UK’s Online Safety Act introduces a duty of care to shield minors from harmful content.
- European DSA enforcement includes increasing obligations for platforms to verify user age and protect privacy simultaneously.
This makes it harder for platforms to comply and maintain user experience. Most either:
- Over-collect and store sensitive PII (personally identifiable information)
- Punt compliance to vendors who create their own data honeypots
- Ignore the rules and risk litigation or fines
It’s a lose-lose-lose. And it’s only getting worse as more jurisdictions pass laws and users demand higher standards.
II. Surveillance by Design: How the Default Became Dangerous
Modern identity verification is increasingly powered by hidden surveillance logic. Platforms say they’re just checking your age or credentials, but the reality is more invasive:
- Behavioral biometrics track how you type, swipe, and scroll
- Facial inference models guess your age and gender with webcams
- Documents uploaded to unknown third-party processors are often retained indefinitely
Every attempt to prove you’re old enough becomes a trojan horse for long-term data profiling. There are few standards, weak transparency mandates, and almost no portability for users.
What was meant to protect children now risks turning the open internet into a permissions-based system, where access requires surrendering identity.
III. A Better Way: Trust Without Surveillance
A new wave of builders is approaching identity not as a regulatory obligation, but as a design flaw to fix.
Tracer Labs is one of the teams at the forefront. Their flagship product, Trust ID, flips the model on its head:
- Verify once, use anywhere: Users authenticate once, then reuse that proof across platforms.
- Selective disclosure: Share only the fact needed (e.g. “over 18”) without your full birthdate or name.
- User-held credentials: Trust ID is portable and encrypted, meaning there’s no central data honeypot.
- Privacy by default: No behavior tracking, no biometric storage, no dark patterns.
This is foundational infrastructure that can be embedded across sectors. Examples:
- Retail: A 21-year-old verifies age once and uses that across alcohol e-commerce sites.
- Parental controls: Parents set guardrails that persist across games and devices.
- Creator platforms: Adult or professional users unlock monetization without risking personal exposure.
- Enterprise onboarding: Startups in fintech, healthtech, or gaming can easily meet identity requirements across regions without building from scratch.
IV. Identity Is Infrastructure — and We’ve Delayed Too Long
Think about how payments used to work: every company managed their own payments stack. Then Stripe arrived and standardized the layer.
Identity today is like payments pre-Stripe. Every company builds its own workflow. Every jurisdiction demands something slightly different. And users suffer through broken UX, data breaches, and privacy tradeoffs.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
A shared, privacy-first identity layer like Trust ID could become the connective tissue that brings coherence to the modern web. It doesn’t just unlock compliance or simplify onboarding. It enables better trust relationships between platforms and people.
V. The Moment We’re In
The next five years will define whether identity online becomes decentralized and user-driven, or centralized and surveillance-laden.
The incentives are aligning for a shift:
- Privacy regulations are tightening
- Users are burned out by breaches and over-sharing
- Platforms are fatigued by redundant workflows and fragmented tooling
Macro trends like stablecoin and digital dollar adoption by banks and large corporates, alongside the proliferation of agents that require identity wallets for payment utility, are accelerating the need for secure, verifiable systems.
The teams that adopt privacy-first, interoperable identity now won’t just be checking a box. They’ll be rebuilding the web’s foundation.
The only question left: when your app asks someone to verify their identity, are you offering trust, or asking them to give it up?
