[rglover]

I hate to play the paranoia card, but this reads like a push from the government for Facebook to start cataloging people. If it wasn't happening already, this is probably the missing piece in court evidence to show that a person is who they really are. This is really, really dangerous (especially when the majority of their users probably aren't bright enough to understand the implications).

[phillmv]

You mean, they needed something other than your birth date, birth place, real name, current residence, work history, current job, name of your parents, cousins, grandparents, not to mention the rest of your graph, to correlate you to a database somewhere?

[rglover]

Yep. Technically I could lie about all of that, but a gov issued ID is 100% factual and has my photo. Also, this suggests requiring a birth certificate in some situations which is even more extreme.

[ahoyhere]

The only thing FB has from me that is real or accurate is my birthday. All the other things you listed are either totally false or out of date. (Then again, I don't "friend" my family… IRL or online.)

Until now-ish (or the near future), FB had no way of verifying that, or forcing me to!

[pasbesoin]

How do you connect? If you aren't actively and intelligently taking precautions, they may well have enough network address history to be fairly definitive.

Also, do you block their widgets on other sites/pages?

Not that I disagree with the "Big Brother" concerns that this "Ihre Papiere, bitte." activity raises.

P.S. Aside from government(s), of what value is a proven identity to commercial interests? Being able to prove that you/they are targeting exactly who they want.

Hmm... Amongst other things, I understand that process servers are already attemtping to use FB as a accepted means of delivery. And I've read that debt collectors are using accounts having profile pictures of bikini clad young women, in order to successfully "friend" those they wish to hound.

All sorts of value to "proven" identities...

[tsieling]

The government has that information. This is an attack by Facebook on the idea that you control your identity, or that you can have identity outside the confines of a private company over which you have no power.

[znowi]

Well, Facebook is a catalog of people. Most of them use real identities. 15% of the world's population willingly share their lives online with full tracking available. It's a dream come true to any secret agency.

Push for real identities is beneficial to both - government and social networks. First get more control over their citizens, second more ad revenue.

[mistercow]

Since they tell you to cover up your license number, it's hard to see how it would be particularly helpful for cataloging.

[rglover]

I'm thinking of a visual catalog. Where if I commit a crime and Facebook can be used as evidence, if one of my photos is my license, it guarantees that it's me. Maybe catalog isn't the right word, but some means for quickly matching a profile to an individual.

[FourthProtocol]

It doesn't. Ebay asked me for a scan of my passport a while ago. I changed all of the details, including my name, and they accepted it.

[rglover]

Interesting. Do you mind me asking why they required a passport? Seems a bit off.

[FourthProtocol]

They asked because I hadn't logged in for two years. I only use Ebay when I have no alternative.