According to Response Source on September 12, hundreds of independent vape stores in the UK will use an innovative artificial intelligence application. It is reported that the application provides automatic and highly accurate facial age estimation, eliminating the guesswork in age checks and reducing the risk of fines for violations, which can be as high as £1,500.
The advocacy group OVA has partnered with British security technology company Privately SA to provide Privately’s AgeAI age estimation system. The company said that the AgeAI system is completely anonymous, does not transmit or store any images, and has passed the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) certification. Its highly accurate age estimation function helps avoid high fines and protects store staff and reduces the risk of conflict by reducing unnecessary ID checks on adults.
James Van Aalst of OVA said, “We want to proactively ensure that our members do their best to avoid selling vapes to minors. Privately’s AgeAI is an ideal solution for our industry. The customized version of AgeAI we provide is industry-leading and designed specifically for vape retailers. It is extremely fast at checkout, greatly reducing friction between staff and customers, and is very easy to set up. AgeAI also automates the “rejection registration” to make compliance monitoring in stores more convenient.”
AgeAI has also received approval from Peterborough City Council, including EAL3 certification and UK GDPR compliance testing, and has also been trialed in Europe and the United States.
Deepak Tewari, CEO of Privately SA, said, “The vape industry is currently highly fragmented and is receiving huge attention, and there is an urgent need to combat sales to minors. OVA members can now rest assured that they have an automated, accurate and fast solution that allows store employees to avoid conflicts caused by asking for ID or rejecting customers.”
“Automatic age verification is the first step to achieving online safety and providing an age-appropriate user experience. Currently, minors can easily access adult content, gambling websites or purchase restricted goods such as vapes, fireworks, alcohol and cigarettes. This can happen online with just a few clicks, while in physical retail stores, ID checks and fake IDs continue to cause friction. Automation is an effective way to solve these problems, and our technology is suitable for a wide range of application scenarios – both online and offline.”
Veehoo vape expressed support for this move, believing that by introducing highly accurate age estimation technology, the risk of violations in the vape retail industry can be effectively reduced and minors can be protected from harmful products.
Through this cooperation, Veehoo vape and industry partners are committed to improving the compliance of the vape retail industry, protecting consumer health and rights, and creating a safer and healthier consumption environment for society.
Tags: vape AI age verification system，Risk of violation in vape retail industry，veehoo vape