Another confusing issue with providing information to Linden Lab has reared its head this week, this time in the shape and form of a forum post from a resident who was confused as to why she had received an email from Linden Lab asking for account information and ID.
The reason was soon explained by Linden Lab in the form of a blog post : Required Account Documentation in which Linden Lab announced:
“In addition to required tax documentation (which we blogged about in November 2013), US law separately requires that institutions such as Linden Lab obtain, verify, and record information confirming the identification of account holders who submit a certain volume and/or amount of Process Credit Requests.
We have recently begun emailing users who need to submit this information. If you receive such a notice from us, you will need to follow the instructions and provide the required documentation within thirty (30) days.”
Now ignoring the usual issues such as people finding out and being confused about matters before people have been informed about said issue by Linden Lab, this raises another issue, that of ID in the digital age. The email the user was sent asks for the same forms to be filled in as in the case of those being asked for tax documentation, but the required account information also asks for the following in this particular case:
“In addition to the form itself, we are required to obtain a copy of your government-issued photo identification (ID). The information on the ID must be current (i.e. not expired) and must match the information you submitted on the form.
Please attach a copy of your identification to this Case. The copy must be clearly legible (full color, no smudges or blurs) and must be fully intact (no cut-off portions, no redacted information).
The following are acceptable forms of photo ID:
• Driver’s license
• Military ID card
• Passport
• Any other form of government-issued photo ID
If your photo ID does not display your address, you must also provide us with a copy of a current utility or telephone bill. The name and address to which the bill is addressed must match the photo ID.
In the meantime, it is necessary for us to place a hold on any and all Process Credit Requests for your account until we receive your form and supporting documentation.”
This therefore goes further than the required tax documentation. Why some people are being asked for this is a little cloudy, but it appears to be due to the amount of money or number of times they process credit. This is required by US law so Linden Lab must comply, so Linden Lab are doing their job here. However why do so many different companies need the same information to be submitted over and over and over again in this day and age? This should be less complicated but there are large hurdles in the way.
Many of us will, at some point in our lives, have to provide this information to an authority. In the UK for example, you would need to provide this sort of information to open a bank account. Many in the UK will also need to provide this sort of information to their place of work, even if they’ve been working at their place of work for many moons before such information was required.
Paypal also provide verified Paypal accounts whereby they verify your account based on payments to said bank account. Therefore you could be in the position where you’ve provided government issued ID to the bank and had Paypal verify the same account. At this point, you should be in ID city and be able to, by some means, show this badge of verification to others who ask for it and therefore not have to submit government issued ID again, you may still be required to fill in forms, but in the digital age it should be more straight forward to point to a flag that says you are verified.
However it’s not that straight forward. People would be very concerned about a central authority holding all this information or potentially sharing it will all and sundry. The other side of that coin is that people end up sharing this information and therefore having the information stored in lots of disparate places, which in reality is a bit of a security risk. That should not be that difficult to get around as the information should not need to be shared, indeed it should just be a flag to say the information matches or not. This was how the age verification offered by Aristotle Integrity was supposed to work in Second Life, of course they weren’t asking for a scan of government issued ID to be issued, although they did ask for numbers from said ID.
However then you get into checks and balances territory and by asking for the information to be submitted again, it’s another barrier to place in front of those of nefarious intentions.
There’s no easy fix in sight for these sort of issues but one can’t help but think, there should be. For example let’s say that Joe Bloggs of number 1 Bay City Terrace, Virtualville, United Kingdom has a verified bank account, linked to a verified Paypal account, linked to a verified work place confirmation, he should not need to keep providing this information over and over and over again to different organisations. The way things work now, there’s no guarantee that the person submitting the ID, even with government issued ID, is actually the person it claims to be. In a digital age, it should be easier for both organisations and individuals to have this information verified.
I doubt anything will change any time soon and in some ways that’s good because it all starts to feels a little less Orwellian than it otherwise would, but there are definite advantages to making processes such as this easier.