Age verification explained

Vapepievape.com offers age verification solutions for e-commerce websites that sell age-restricted products.

Age gate vs. age verification.

An age gate is the pop-up that appears when you enter an age-restricted website, such as a gaming site or one that sells tobacco products, alcohol, adult products, etc. Vapepievape.com's age gate is not intended to replace our full age verification service, as it does not verify the validity of the information. However, it serves to inform users of the minimum age requirement and to help meet the merchant's age policy when used in conjunction with our comprehensive age verification system.

Why is age verification required?

Websites that sell certain products must comply with federal and state laws. For example, tobacco and alcohol products in the US are subject to a federal age requirement of 21. Websites, like retail stores, must ensure that you are of legal drinking age before making a purchase.

Some websites use our service even though they are not legally required to verify your age, and each website chooses its own policies.

Vapepievape.com can be used to ensure compliance with minimum age laws, block sales to locations a business does not wish to ship to, verify job applications, conduct identity verification to prevent fraud, and more. The requirements and their reasons are the responsibility of each individual website. We offer a variety of settings from which businesses can choose to enforce their own policies and/or help them comply with the laws and guidelines of authorities such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Why now? I'm a long-time customer.

We understand that some adult customers have purchased tobacco products from websites for years without undergoing age verification. Legal pressure, the general growth of e-commerce, new products on the market, and other factors have driven the implementation of age verification technologies on websites. Proper age verification is not just a best practice, but a law that is increasingly being enforced for online businesses.

What information is collected?

The age verification process takes place during checkout, when you begin entering payment and shipping details. Vapepievape.com automatically pulls information such as your name and address from your billing data and requests your date of birth via a pop-up or email after payment, depending on how the website has configured our plugin.

We use this information to verify your age against our databases of public records and previously verified customers. Over 90% of customers are instantly verified using only their name, address, and date of birth, so it's important to provide accurate information. This isn't just an age gate displayed on the homepage! Entering your exact date of birth helps us verify you faster and complete your order.

If we can't verify you immediately, you'll be asked to submit a photo ID, which is manually verified within one minute. Photo IDs are automatically deleted after verification. If your photo ID is approved, we securely store your name, address, and date of birth to recognize you in the future and skip the ID request.

The Vapepievape.com customer service team can be contacted for assistance with checkout (in connection with our age verification app) via email at [email protected]

We aim to make online age verification a quick, hassle-free process that impacts your usual checkout experience as little as possible. Our customer service team is available 24/7 to support our website customers and their clients throughout the age verification process.

How is my personal information protected?

We take data protection and security very seriously. Your personal data, such as name, address, and date of birth, is used solely for age verification and stored exclusively in our secure database to verify you in the future without an ID. Photo IDs are not automatically saved; they are deleted immediately after verification. In some cases, you will be asked for your consent to save your photo ID if the website needs to comply with legal requirements. For more information, please see our privacy policy.