Over the years, setting up a Starlink account was pretty straightforward. It only involved providing your email, shipping address, service address, and credit card details. Unfortunately, users no longer enjoy this seamless process. According to new reports, setting up Starlink now requires dropping passport details and carrying out a live face scan. This new development is linked to regulatory compliance requirements in some markets.
Understanding Starlink’s passport and live face scan requirements
Concerns are growing among Starlink users in some gray-market regions. This comes after the reports of the new KYC prompts users get when setting up their accounts. The issue started when an Iraqi user noted they were requested to complete verification while using a roaming Georgia-registered plan.
For the verification, Starlink requested the person to provide their:
- Legal name
- Passport photo
- Passport number
- Live face scan
That’s not all; failing to meet these requirements comes with deactivation warnings. Interestingly, the Iraq user isn’t the only person getting these prompts. Users from other regions, such as Europe and the US, also received the prompts.
Understanding Starlink’s official policy
You should know that Starlink has always complied with local regulations over the years. A good example is the enforcement of biometric KYC in some African countries like Nigeria. The company’s policy clearly defines that local regulators in certain countries often request a collection of customer identification to deliver services.
As noted by PiunikaWeb, starting April 2026, regulators in Kenya enforced in-person verification at approved retailers. Due to these directives by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), Starlink has already started suspending service for Kenyan users who failed to comply with the directives.
Agreed, Starlink’s push for users to drop their passport details and carry out live face scans is designed to reduce cybercrime. But keep in mind that most unsupported regions rely on roaming services. As such, this new KYC process links the user’s real identity and location to their account, which will certainly come out unmatched. In this case, the user stands at risk of getting suspended due to unmatched details.
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