User:William/GamerSafer Q&A

This page contains responses to questions from our Public Q&A form on GamerSafer verification and Dogcraft.

Submit questions: https://forms.gle/C5qWqrAxAeXZBzT78

Q&A

Q: How do I ensure this company deletes my data after the verification as I do not consent to them keeping my biometric data.

A: You can delete your GamerSafer account, after which point GamerSafer are legally obligated to delete your data. For instructions on how to delete your GamerSafer account, please check their website.

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Q: Can the software really see through extreme cases of baby face, as I've gotten tangled up with software like that before.

A: The software is robust and able to account for baby faces. Part of the check involves comparing against your Date of Birth and the software is lenient enough that we do not believe this to be an issue.

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Q: Were alternatives considered? Uploading a picture of your face seems pretty nuclear in terms of online safety (as in, there are very few people I would send a picture of my face to. The act itself feels unsafe).

A: Several alternatives were considered and explored in-depth over several months, including measures as drastic as restricting the server behind a paywall. We believe this to be the most accessible measure that we can introduce that meet's Rendogs requirements and provides us with assurance, beyond reasonable doubt, that our playerbase does not contain any users under the age of 18.

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Q: if you do not have a smart device how will that work for the scan. is it possible just to verify ages to mods instead?

A: Indeed, Age Verification requires an iOS or Android smart device. We recommend asking to borrow a friend's smart device to do this. Thank you for your understanding; while we anticipate most users will have a device to complete verification on we do of course appreciate that for those that do not, this is a bit of a hassle.

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Q: Is this actually necessary or just an attempt to get on the official Minecraft server list that was recently announced?

A: Rendog requested we introduced an age verification measure to provide peace of mind beyond reasonable doubt that the implementation of our 18+ minimum age rule would be effective. We have no interest and gain limited benefit from unlocking a badge on the FindMCServer website. After extensive research and work, we settled on partnering with GamerSafer to implement this.

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Q: Will there be any alternative way of age verification for people unable to access a smart device and/or uncomfortable with sharing any kind of information with a third party company?

A: All users will be required to complete GamerSafer age verification. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to verify users ages due to the huge logistical and security overheads associated with processing data in such quantities. We apologise and appreciate your understanding. We vouch for GamerSafer's reputability and professionalism in helping us deliver this new measure.

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Q: How does an age verification that allegedly does not retain identifying information prevent bad faith actors from accessing Dogcraft? Not every adult, confirmed or otherwise, is acting in good faith and this also seems like it assumes bad faith as default.

A: There is no silver bullet to preventing any and all bad actors from accessing our community. We do believe, however, that this measure reduces the risk of a bad actor using our server as a vector to cause harm to minors; a risk which is of significant (and understandable) concern to Rendog. We believe that introducing this measure will, beyond reasonable doubt, alleviate the risk of a child coming into harms way while on our server.

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Q: I don't understand how this protects Dogcraft's players. This seems like asking actual 18+ players to breach their privacy and transmit highly personal data to a third party company to protect hypothetical children/prevent them from joining a server that has clearly been designated as adult only, which a child should not go near in the first place. Any child acting in bad faith will always find ways around an age verification, and being an adult does not prevent someone from being a bad faith actor. Can you clarify how this helps the community?

A: "The honest objective with introducing this measure is not for the direct benefit of the community so much as it is for the benefit of providing Ren peace of mind that minors are not able to access and play on our server and potentially come into harms way. The reality is that the risks of children coming into harms way interacting with strangers are far greater than they were when Dogcraft first opened its doors.

The ""beyond reasonable doubt"" part of this is the key, really; while it's true individuals who want to can find ways around systems, we think this system is robust enough to provide us with the assurance that our users are not underage. We of course respect that this does place an additional data burden on our users; it's our hope that we can try and alleviate specific concerns with how your data is processed where possible and give you the information needed so you can make an informed choice about completing this process."

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Q: The GamerSafer privacy policy states that the proper way to ensure they stop using your data is to delete your account. If I verify, and then delete my account later, will I lose access to the server?

A: You will not lose access to the server. Verification is a one-time affair, and deleting the app/your GamerSafer account after carrying out the verification process is fine. Note of course that you must keep your Dogcraft if you wish to continue playing on the server; if you choose to delete it (thereby unlinking it from your Minecraft account), you will need to re-create it and re-complete the GamerSafer linking step.

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Q: I'm getting error message on the app while trying to take the verification image and have tried different areas of light, still getting the same issue. I am logged in with the correct username.

A: "If you're encountering errors with setting up your GamerSafer account or using the GamerSafer app, we specifically recommend getting in touch with GamerSafer's support directly.

Users can do this by emailing them at [email protected] or creating a support ticket in their Discord: https://gamersafer.com/discord"

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Q: How much did gamersafer cost to install, what does the partnership entail, and how was it chosen over other verification alternatives?

A: "Dogcraft pays GamerSafer a standard monthly fee (which we are unable to disclose at this time; though you may be able to extrapolate based on their public pricing website); our partnership simply entails paying GamerSafer in return for their service and beyond working with them for help integrating our account system with their API, there is no further nuance to our business.

Our assignment from Rendog was to implement an age verification system to the server. We explored a variety of options. One option was using an 18+ Patreon page (which did not work, as this required a paywall and setting Ren's patreon as though it were a Triple-X rated material supplier). Another option was Jumilo, or another government-ID style checker; these proved far too expensive and out of scope for what we are (a Minecraft Server).

We considered further, more abstract options too (such as ideas surrounding linking to other services' accounts which have verification flows in them; all failed to pan out for a variety of reasons and were increasingly obtuse for end-users). GamerSafer emerged as the only viable option after excluding everything else. They provide a system that doesn't just work but is designed from the ground up for Minecraft servers of our calibre for age verification. Furthermore, they are officially endorsed by Mojang as the operators of the FindMCServerList website. This aligned both with what we could do, our budget, and legal obligations in terms of the data we would have to handle."