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Comment by cryo32 | Hacker News Reader

I haven't found a competent supplier who doesn't want to know who you are.

I entirely exclude Digital Ocean from competent suppliers.

Just because a company wants to know who you are doesn’t mean they are entitled to a scan of a sensitive government document that can be used to commit identity theft.

I’m amazed that it is even legal for businesses to ask for that at all, outside of a few exceptional cases of which “I want to rent a server” most certainly isn’t one.

They ask me for it when I need a sim card. What is the difference.

None, and I think it's actually the very same law, all internet connections must be KYCed.

> I’m amazed that it is even legal for businesses to ask for that at all, outside of a few exceptional cases of which “I want to rent a server” most certainly isn’t one.

How about the case of “I want to rent a server to distribute illicit and or dangerous materials and then it’s your problem”?

    > How about the case of “I want to rent a server to distribute illicit and or dangerous materials and then it’s your problem”?

Why would it be?

And are we going to use "because terrorism" card on HN?

Yeah, I think that’s the one case where it’s actually appropriate to use that card.

Like it or not, banks are legally mandated to do KYC, and this is essentially the same, except for information or communication being “moved” instead of money.

It's a foreign concept to Americans but in Europe everyone is supposed to be able to be held accountable. That means a lot more things are KYC. You need ID to get a SIM card or a drone.

Why can't they say "we got payments from this and this payment card" and then they can follow up with the bank?

It's rather an indicator of a system that is so broken that a digital copy of a single form of ID document is sufficient to impersonate someone well enough to do financial damage.

>I haven't found a competent supplier who doesn't want to know who you are.

Thank you! Say this louder for all the people saying VPN providers shouldn't have your government issued ID on file to use them.

As you point out, Mullvad VPN and the like are NOT competent suppliers and should NOT be trusted, as you correctly point out.

I know this is facetious, but Mullvad funded fascism. So you're right anyway.

What's wrong with DO? Been happily using them for over a decade.

Sudden account closure. Bad neighbours. IP blocks on DO ranges all over the place randomly. Egress email is painful.

AWS, GCP, Azure don’t care either.

Sure. That’s why they call you to verify that you open a new account. That’s why they ask me for company information. Because they don’t care…

They verify a phone number, but you can use the same number on as many accounts as you want, and it's just a verification code.

Yeah, for which I had to identify myself with an ID with a picture and an address on it!

AWS does care. You have to sign up with a credit card and verify a phone number. And if you want to spend serious money you have to actually provide business documentation.

Yes but not for initial $5

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