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Comment by nickpeterson | Hacker News Reader

Maybe I should use this instead of Threads. I had an account there, 'deepsleepcountsheep' and then it randomly got banned/turned off and it keeps asking me to prove my identify. I submitted my state drivers license but apparently they can't use that? Insane honestly, not really sure what triggered it, maybe the icloud private relay?

Anyways, I think I'll try either this or mastodon.

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Mastodon is the way, and it federates with Threads.

Only if you're on the right (or wrong) server.

Which is your own choice.

> I submitted my state drivers license […]

Wait what? Why did you willingly give Facebook a copy of your driver license?! That makes no sense at all. There is absolutely no social account in existence that is so important to follow Facebook’s requirements (or any other social network for what is worth). No the president’s account, not the vice-president, not the bishop of Rome, no one’s account is that important to hand over your private information.

Why not? Who cares if Facebook has my drivers license number? Unless they plan on using the new Georgia voter deregistration site, it doesn’t seem very sensitive. Or are you worried about the address part?

Let me answer your question with another question: would you feel comfortable sending a picture of both sides of your driver’s license to my email address? If you say “no”, please share the reasons here, maybe they are the answer to your own question.

I trust facebook not to scam me (..?) much more than I trust a random stranger. As someone who worked in big tech, my takeaway was that they’re absurdly worried about data privacy and security when it comes to PII and such. They’re evil, of course, but not because they’re opening credit cards in the name of their users…

Tho tbh maybe they could sell the resulting info? I guess? Address isn’t exactly top-secret info and I give it out all the time to worse companies than Facebook, but still, they could (and probably would!) sell it for a few fractions of a cent to some big data conglomerate.

Facebook's staff can always try to commit identity theft if you provide them all the identity information needed to do it

Access to any of this kind of information at a big tech company is logged and scrutinized like you wouldn't believe. You will be nuked from orbit before you can exfil even a single DL pic. There's a reason you don't hear stories like "Facebook employee stole my drivers license!" -- despite the media salivating for the opportunity.

Its far more than just being scammed by button pusher #300 at FB to me. All of Big Tech are active targets of very seriously motivated people attempting to get the gourd of information each of these companies collect. And many times they succeed.

Microsoft for example has an active bulletin of various organizations from nearly every country in the world.

As does Google, as does Facebook, and so on. Some of these companies coordinate on espionage as well.

But that is getting beside the point which is you giving up your information is far more than opening yourself up to scams.

It's is likely reviewed by humans, who can just capture a screenshot or snap a photo of their screen with their phone.

sure but if we allow companies to capture this information then it will just be massively leaked like they fumble everything else

- "No the president’s account, not the vice-president, not the bishop of Rome, no one’s account is that important"

What about your friends'?

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