[mikeyk]

Hey all,

Mike Krieger (Instagram co-founder) here. Just wanted to offer some clarification since there's some speculation about the reason & scope for the verification mentioned in the article.

When we receive evidence of a violation of our site policies, we respond. This isn't a recent change, but the way we've run our community from the beginning. In some specific cases, for verification purposes, we request that people upload a government issued ID in response. This is the case for a very small percentage of accounts, and doesn't affect most Instagram users. The ID is used only for account verification, and not retained permanently.

Hope that helps clarify things a bit.

[capnrefsmmat]

> In some specific cases, for verification purposes, we request that people upload a government issued ID in response.

Verification of what?

[GuiA]

>The ID is used only for account verification, and not retained permanently.

Do you ask to cover the license number/address as well, the way Facebook.com does? If yes, doesn't it make it trivially easy to send a fake picture of a license your way?

[kevinSuttle]

One more reason to gladly pay Flickr. Sayonara Instamine.

[joering2]

> and not retained permanently

Mike, how can you be a "software engineer" and make a statement like that?

[VeejayRampay]

It DOES clarify things. Maybe not the way you'd like though.

[znowi]

> Hope that helps clarify things a bit.

Yes, it helps. Now I'm even more convinced how corrupt your company is.