diff --git a/doc/changes/dev/13566.other.rst b/doc/changes/dev/13566.other.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..20f2066726a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/changes/dev/13566.other.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Remove legacy Python-version compatibility checks in ``mne.utils.misc._empty_hash`` now that ``usedforsecurity=False`` is always supported, by :newcontrib:`Varun Kasyap Pentamaraju` (:gh:`13566`).
diff --git a/doc/changes/names.inc b/doc/changes/names.inc
index 77e665ec6ed..cc6800a1b49 100644
--- a/doc/changes/names.inc
+++ b/doc/changes/names.inc
@@ -336,6 +336,7 @@
 .. _Tziona NessAiver: https://github.com/TzionaN
 .. _user27182: https://github.com/user27182
 .. _Valerii Chirkov: https://github.com/vagechirkov
+.. _Varun Kasyap Pentamaraju: https://github.com/varunkasyap
 .. _Velu Prabhakar Kumaravel: https://github.com/vpKumaravel
 .. _Victor Ferat: https://github.com/vferat
 .. _Victoria Peterson: https://github.com/vpeterson
diff --git a/mne/utils/misc.py b/mne/utils/misc.py
index 066883e8c8f..12e22197c76 100644
--- a/mne/utils/misc.py
+++ b/mne/utils/misc.py
@@ -32,13 +32,8 @@ def _identity_function(x):
     return x
 
 
-# TODO: no longer needed when py3.9 is minimum supported version
 def _empty_hash(kind="md5"):
-    func = getattr(hashlib, kind)
-    if "usedforsecurity" in inspect.signature(func).parameters:
-        return func(usedforsecurity=False)
-    else:
-        return func()
+    return getattr(hashlib, kind)(usedforsecurity=False)
 
 
 def _pl(x, non_pl="", pl="s"):