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Comment by edwinwee | Hacker News Reader

It’s not really a “trend”—if you think about it, ID verification is already required when checking into hotels, buying alcohol, or when visiting a bank teller.

As more commerce moves online, Stripe Identity was built to significantly reduce the number of organizations and humans that would touch your ID—in a faster, secure way that’s hosted by Stripe (https://support.stripe.com/questions/common-questions-about-...).

We are also very direct about collecting consent: https://support.stripe.com/questions/common-questions-about-....

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In very few of those use-cases does the entity 1) _retain_ any of that data, 2) posses an internet-scale database of identities.

And as we've all come to know the distinction between "able to surveil" and "collect it all" crosses a threshold to make it of a different kind.

If one's mindset is that in general, tech companies, unlike those other entities store it all, then there actually is a recent "trend" to migrate a normal behavior into an abnormally socially adjusted space.

It is already illegal to retain copies of ID cards or even some of the data in many countries. Just requesting a copy without redactions is wandering into a gray area in Germany.

> It’s not really a “trend”

> As more commerce moves online

It is very much a trend and that is very much what you are describing. The problem with identity verification is

a) Business that have no business requesting them do so. Linkedin, Google, Facebook does this when they suspect you are a bot. But if you have been a long time user, they hold your account with your personal data as hostage. You cannot delete your account if you object to providing your official documents.

b) There is very little legal protection if companies (not saying Stripe will) use your official documents to build an extremely detail online profile of you. Its all based on trusting what these companies say.

Just last month I had a DJ company ask for an ID and selfie for a $200 software purchase.

Maybe these things are designed for KYC’ing crypto and buying alcohol but it’s definitely a trend to apply this process broadly. All for the fear of generally preventing everyday fraud, piracy, and maybe just collecting data for some nebulous future use. Of course they rarely do the actual basics and apply any thought to not treating your real customers like criminals.

I don’t doubt Stripe can make the process better and do it in a good way, but can Stripe minimize what this process is even applied to in the first place and avoid manufactured consent.

One of the nice things about the internet is/was that it requires less bullshit and red tape than many real-life interactions. The internet becoming as bureaucratic and oppressive as, say, international travel, is absolutely a trend - and a very harmful one.

It's not a good trend though. I actually prioritize doing business with vendors that don't do this (I only shop at stores that don't generally card for alcohol for instance)

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