I’m straight-up not comfortable uploading a government document online. Bite my shiny metal toosh, Microsoft.
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I am fascinated by this. I guess when there is no universally recognized ID it feels weirder?
I mean, sure, by all means withhold info from social media platforms, but if it’s one where you’re going to have your real name and your whole-ass work history on public display, surely verifying your ID is trivial? You could absolutely google the info in a LinkedIn page and find a bunch of additional info anyway.
I get it intellectually, it’s a taboo now, just like it’s a taboo to have people find out your address or phone number when it used to be publicly listed until a few years ago. It’s just weird that it’s still a taboo for the services where verifying your ID is presumably a feature, not a bug.
My biggest gripe is that it’s done through a third party, Persona ID.
They make you agree to another set of terms and conditions which opens you up to even more 3rd parties.
I consent to Persona collecting, using, and utilizing its third-party service providers to process my biometric information in order to verify my identity for fraud prevention, in accordance with the Persona’s Privacy Policy. Your biometric information will be stored for no longer than 6 months.
Were this limited to just Microsoft I might have caved.
It’s less about verifying ID, and more about trusting them to be responsible with the documents.
If they have a human assess the ID right away, and delete the file once that person’s identity has been assessed, that’s probably safe. But let’s face it, they probably store it somewhere, and when they inevitably get hacked now everyone’s driver’s license (with their state ID number, address, and DoB) is for sale on the dark web. There is enough info on your State Drivers’ License to open credit accounts, particularly if you forge some documents as well.
Well, I guess I’m glad we have fairly secure documentation. Not that fraud doesn’t happen, but given how ubiquitous and easy to find that info is the real value is in the document itself, which is minted very much like paper money is and is pretty hard to falsify or forge.
Like many other issues this is the kind of issue I find is fairly well solved.
Let me guess, you’ve never had your identity stolen, have you?
Nnnope. Presumably because I have secure government ID minted like paper money, containing a digital certificate and pretty hard to falsify or forge.
Look, I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, I’m saying it’s a useful tool to mitigate it. I’ve definitely shared my official ID online for things. It’s even used for preorders sometimes in high demand items or concert tickets to prevent scalping and effectively limit amounts per person. It kinda works.
They dont steal your ID by cloning your passport, they steal it by getting just enough Personally Identifying Information to be able to start up credit cards and other loans that are tied to your credit history, without your knowledge. By the time you find out, they’ve run all the credit lines to the max and then you have to go around to all those companies and prove you didn’t make all those charges. Then you have to get all of your account numbers changed, because you don’t necessarily know what the hacker has compromised.
Most of the information necessary for opening accounts is on your driver’s’ license. Pretty much the only thing it is missing is your SSN. And in some cases, a valid state license number can be used in place of that
Yeah, but that’s the point, with universal secure ID all of those actions require showing your universal secure ID. You can’t just give people enough information that sounds or is legit and get a loan, you need to provide your ID and have it verified.
And hey, if somebody that holds a copy of your ID leaks it you’re only at risk for a bit of time, because these things expire and each new one you get looks different. It’s very hard and not worth it to forge these for that reason, and if somebody went to the trouble of doing that you could easily prove it doesn’t match the original you hold.
Fraud and identity theft obviously still exists, but it normally involves getting older people to sign things they didn’t mean to or share their information through social engineering. But just finding your info online and generating enough debt to create a massive problem? That seems hard and reversible.
Plus it’s fucking microsoft.
Its one of the challenges that seriously doesn’t seem to have an easy solution. Like the closest I can think of is a centralized authority that the service can send a identity verification request to that, then the user can sign into the centralized authority and confirm “yes I am the person you requested to verify”
This would also help with annoying employment verification where I have to bring every document needed to steal my identity to my new employer for them to scan and digitally store indefinitely then return said documents to my safe
Xing.com, basically German LinkedIn.
Oh, I thought that was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xing_Technology
Yup, had them lock an account before. Never gave them my info. Had to start a new account and actively work around their fraud protections with fingerprinting. And eventually reconnect. Pain in the butt.
You have zero recourse and no appeal process. Even uploading an ID doesn’t guarantee anything.
Ugh this sucks, but no, not really. LinkedIn isn’t just a platform, it’s the people on it. No other site exists that will get you the same amount of exposure. There are definitely other sites and non-internet options for networking in general though.
I have a blackened image (only photo and name visible) around for cases like this.
I was about to upload that. Then turns out they use a third party to process this…
During the sign-up process, they referenced even more third parties… so I gave up.
I consent to Persona collecting, using, and utilizing its third-party service providers to process my biometric information in order to verify my identity for fraud prevention, in accordance with the Persona’s Privacy Policy. Your biometric information will be stored for no longer than 6 months.
Yikes.
Having the same problem. I have to get an affidavit of identity just to delete the account because ther is no way I’m giving them my ID.
What? You can’t simply delete your account? Bleh. I’m so ready to get rid of it. It’s like Facebook.
I’m very sorry I ever made an account for sure.
Indeed is an alternative but I never used it.
Indeed is not an alternative to networking with people who work at companies you are interested in, no.
Ironically, Coursera requires govt ID to furnish certificates. I have a cyber security certificate sitting in limbo. I ain’t giving y’all my govt ID so I can obtain a cyber security cert. Seems like a trick!
In that case you wouldn’t have gotten the security part and your time and, maybe, money would have been lost, but you not having this certificate, ironically, demonstrates you learned enough
Wait long enough and you get the real certificate
I had this same thing happen when I tried to sign up years ago. There is no way around it, there is no alternative. The only option is to send them pictures of your ID, which is in the “hell no” category on my to do list.
Happened to my friend. Had to jump through hoops for months to get his acct back.
There is no real alternative for networking professionally. None id advise anyways.
Alternative: Submit resumes directly to companies you are interested in and/or use a recruiter. The latter is surprisingly nice. Last time I used one I got lined up for phone interviews with little effort and the recruiter pushed the company forward during the hiring pipeline when the company was being wishy-washy.
The recruiter only gets full payment if you get hired and stay at your job for a full year. (And this payment does not come from you!)
That honestly looks like the only option. Just gonna set up a github pages with my resume and keep that updated instead.
I’m employed at the moment so this isn’t that big a deal.
That’s what I decided.
It will be more informative, and I have lots of options for hosting.
In most cases the cut-off is six months, not a year.
How do you find a recruiter without LinkedIn?
Do a web search for recruiting firms. Find one who specifically mentions they recruit for your industry.
I have such bad things to say about recruiters. They generally don’t have a clue about any of the skills related to the jobs I’m after, and they take a huge cut of the pay the entire time I’m working the job.
On the other hand, the two best jobs (highest pay and best working environment) I’ve had in my career, I got through recruiters, so I acknowledge them as a useful business when it works out. The last one has led to the company buying my contract and hiring me directly for the past 12 years
This has been my experience the past 8 years or so. Before that they seemed to kind of have an idea. I get approached about stuff that is totally not my area of expertise in my field lol. Like you’re a tech recruiter, shouldn’t you have a basic idea and understand that a SQL expert is not a Microsoft 365 expert, or something?
Second on the recruiters (although i met all mine through linkedin). my last two company hops were using recruiters and i had multiple job offers to consider both times.
Kind of bs, seeing as how I use my friend’s account (with permission) to access the free Udemy courses that his career provides him and I’ve never seen this. Figures they’d nail legitimate users and completely miss people who abuse the system. Typical Microsoft.
Hope an alternative comes someday; I’ve always disliked LinkedIn.
This is kinda standard practice for many of the tech companies… I’ve gad to provide such information to Google, I think I declined last time but it was some rights for Youtube that time, it’s also something that Facebook do ask some users if they think you’re not using your real name…
I totally get your sentiment about this.
Microsoft locked my account (one week after forcing me to migrate from my Mojang account), and they require a phone number for “verification”. They don’t have anything to verify against however. So if someone malicous had gained access to my account, they could just enter their own number and the account is theirs to keep I guess
This actually happened to someone I know, with PayPal. She got a spammy looking thing several years ago from PayPal for email validation, that she didn’t request, and like a good Netizen she ignored it. Recently she decided to migrate her PayPal account to that email, only to find that original PayPal account was somehow still active, in spite of being unverified. Requests to change the password to to to someone else’s phone (which they ignore), and PayPal has no process to fix it. They can’t delete the account from being associated with that email, even though they know the email is unverified, and that email can’t be used to verify another account.
Nobody knows how to get PayPal to fix it. One Redditor claimed to get attention by filing a complaint with the San Jose BBB, but that seems to be too much effort.
I wish it were felony illegal to create accounts for someone without a verification email.
filing a complaint with the San Jose BBB, but that seems to be too much effort.
lol may as well file a complaint with Yelp, because Yelp is the modern version of the BBB.
Right, I was surprised to see anyone (on Reddit, of all places) saying the BBB was relevant at all, but there it was. maybe they were trolling? She didn’t want to expend the effort to find out.
BBB helped me get a refund from Adobe after they restarted my Adobe contract without warning at non student pricing, and when I asked for them to cancel it they would charge me a full year as cancelation fee, so I complained on the bbb site and bam every thing got reversed
While that is an accurate description with them both being for profit protection rackets, the BBB does actually have some success in getting major businesses to fix stuff.
Who’s BBB?
I’ve got a buddy that had a similar issue with Origin (now EA Desktop)… He can’t access his games anymore because he used an email that is no longer operated and he has not longer access to it… So he is basically fucked because EA won’t do shit for him.
I agree with you about not wanting to share a government document with a shitty social media company. But companies that tie your account to your identity are going to insist on this moving forward. You have a right to complain, but don’t be surprised if they insist. Their walled garden, their rules.
As a US Citizen, I have found that sending them an image of a US passport card is a decent compromise. The card itself is only useful for travel at land borders, but counts as Federally-issued ID. It has your name, nationality, passport card number, and date of birth, but not your address. The picture isn’t really good for much. And, perhaps most importantly, all the ICAO stuff that is normally on your passport page is on the back of the passport card, meaning that a picture of just the front doesn’t have all the info. Bonus points if you are old enough to have an expired one, then the card number will be useless.
There is very little damage a identity thief can do with just a passport card number. You are probably at more risk with your DOB being there. But, due to COPA, they probably have your DOB anyway. People can’t even book flights with it, as passport cards are only for land crossings.
For a grad school project last year, I proposed a Fediverse version of LinkedIn, with the ability to find and hire people for projects.
It’s just in the proposition stage, but I got pretty excited about it. If allowed the opportunity, I might work on it as my capstone project early next year.
That’s something I’d volunteer to contribute.
please do this
