Facebook, Instagram Asks Some Users to Upload Photo IDs

Source

Yup folks, you read that correctly.

nstagram is asking some users to upload photos of their government-issued identification cards — and in some cases, birth certificates — according to a report from Talking Points Memo. Facebook said the requests come in cases of certain terms of service violations, according to TPM, though refused to elucidate further.

Facebook counters that it's asking only when T&C violations occur, yet they are targeting massively popular people on facebook, and according to them were asked to "test a new verification service".

Disgusting.

~Tenth

Interesting and troubling at the implications of this, however it all comes full circle to their T&C

“We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Service or your access to the Service for any reason, without notice, at any time, and without liability to you,” reads one clause in the new terms of service as of January 19, 2013, which also later state: “We reserve the right to refuse access to the Service to anyone for any reason at any time.”

At the end of the day, you are not forced to use this service.

Now, I recall some previous issues in which these companies may have actually released personal information to advertising companies, but is this not a inherent risk to utilizing "free" services.

I for one stay away from Facebook, Instagram and avoided MySpace and so forth in the beginning days of the internet.

I would say they are well within their right to ask to for any form of validation they wish, regardless of insane it may be but like i said, the implications of such requests seems ridiculous.

reply to post by MDDoxs


I totally agree.

Get off FB if you don't like the terms, it's that simple. I have a FB accnt, but I only have a dozen or so friends and mostly, it's to keep tabs on my kids

I just think it's nefarious and weird they would ask for government photo ID when they are a company known for selling your info to advertisers. That's a whole new set of data for them now.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


No good can come from a private company having your government issued personal documentation digitally filed.

I think the issue here is those in the West have grown up on the culture of convenience and "freeware" and by freeware i mean FB, myspace, youtube. Once you have come to rely on these free services, it is not easy to breakaway and you are more willing to dish our private information to maintain the status quo.

Now, here is a bit of a fallicious argument, but anyways:

The average FB/Instragram users has become so accustomed to using these services, they lament for a moment at the inconvenience of providing these government documents, but yield to the request eventually to get back to their social networking dominion.

Now we move forward some time and another service asks for this information and these people think nothing of it because of their past experience with it. Then what we see, is more and more services asking and asking, eventually ever private company will have a digital scan of your birth certificate, driver’s license and membership card to the gym. Soon, identity theft goes through the roof and this fraud is harder to detect as the result of your actual documents being out in the digital world, people steal your money and your identity and these private corporations start growing clones to replace you, that will use your DOCUMENTS!!......Okay got a bit carried away there, but it seems like a slippery slope to me.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Isn't that a violation of privacy in Canada?
We're supposed to have privacy laws here, much stricter than in the US.
Wouldn't that be against those laws?
I'm only on fb to see family, and I don't have any photos of me, anywhere on the web.

Sadly, i have to admit, i have a FB account, not a large fan of it,
but i have to say, the day they ask me for this would be the day i
delete my account.

There is a limit as to what i would do online, and this goes way beyond
what i'm comfy with.

Originally posted by snowspirit
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

Isn't that a violation of privacy in Canada?
We're supposed to have privacy laws here, much stricter than in the US.
Wouldn't that be against those laws?
I'm only on fb to see family, and I don't have any photos of me, anywhere on the web.

Yes, yes it is.

There is no way they could legally ask you to give this information for providing a service.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


This is not new, and also a non story.

If you receive enough complaints, be it about content you posted, or people accusing you of being a fake, you will have to provide identification to facebook to unlock your account. It's literally been that way for years.

No one forces you to use it, and only an idiot would scan a government id and post it to anyone.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Facebook and the other idiots out there need to realize that before them, we had email. And we still have email. The day any website asks me for something like that is the day I leave them in the dust. They are, after all just a website. They're not the DMV, department of immigration or the police. But some internet company out there to make a buck. When is the last time any of you had to show your birth certificate at McDonald's or KFC?

Screw Mark Zuckerberg and the rest. Their game is one of information, brown nosers of big brother. (Wow, first time I legitimately used the term "big brother" in a post.)

reply to post by tothetenthpower

There is no way they could legally ask you to give this information for providing a service.

Yes, yes they can. To verify your identity. Facebook has an age policy (might have been updated by now) now allowing persons under 13 to use it. How do you prove that?

any other site would make you provide credit card information, which of course would spawn it's own thread here.

Facebook, and by extension instagram, are providing a service to you, with rules set in the T&C. When it comes time to enforce them, your identity must be proven.

Worst case, walk away, i don't get the issue

Hi. FB "no-fans".

I copy-pasted it many times, so you know, about it and similars :

Tw1tter hacked; 250,000 user accounts potentially compromised
allthingsd.com...

Farcebook scans conversations, chats and posts. . .
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Farcebook leaks its own code. . .
www.pcmag.com...

Farcebook security lapse leaves private photos exposed. . .
www.readwriteweb.com...

Farcebook, a black hole for personal info. . .
yro.slashdot.org.../02/12/1354255&from=rss

And if it ever happens to you, this is what farcebook sends to police
when they come asking for your information:
superchief.tv...

Blue skies.

reply to post by tothetenthpower
People in my RL are always complaining because I don't do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, MySpace- none of them. ATS is my "one stop shop" for everything these days, and the day they demand my birth certificate, photo ID or credit card info is the day I walk away from this place forever.

Originally posted by MDDoxs
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

No good can come from a private company having your government issued personal documentation digitally filed.

...

Now we move forward some time and another service asks for this information and these people think nothing of it because of their past experience with it....

And there it is. Facebook's agenda and their business model is to force a "new normal." It's incrementalism in its rawest form. A few years down the road, no one will remember when it wasn't required to routinely upload documents; indeed we'll probably have a global electronic ID soon enough, just to make it easier. This isn't going to end here--it's just starting....