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by devmach 4793 days ago
> matching it to offline ID documentation, such as confirming personal information or scanning a photo ID. The name provided by both channels must match for verification to succeed.

Sorry, but there is no way i'm going to scan my passport, id or driver license and send them. Why ? Because they are my life... In some countries, like my motherland Turkey , if someone , somehow has them they can get loans from bank in my name, get credit card or worse set up a firm. I have no reason to "trust" airbnb and their partners in this case.

What could be a better solution ? Well i could accept facebook validation + verification code via $1 credit card charge ( like paypal does ).
2 comments
praptak 4793 days ago
> if someone , somehow has them they can get loans from bank in my name, get credit card or worse set up a firm

On top of that they can establish a verified ID with AirBnB and any similar companies. This is recursively scary :)

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anxx 4793 days ago
The "they" we are talking about are AirBnb employeees, not some random people. It's no different than giving a copy of your passport to the bank teller - in theory they could also use your info for bad purposes, but it's much less likely than a random person.
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calvinlough 4793 days ago
The "they" could be AirBnB employees, but it was probably a reference to hackers breaking in and copying those files from AirBnB servers. The fewer servers that have a scanned copy of your passport, the better.
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tghw 4793 days ago
Do you refuse to hand over your passport to hotels that require it for foreign visitors? Do you follow the waiter back to the payment terminal after handing over your credit card to make sure they don't copy it?

Personally, I would trust Airbnb much more than some of the hotels/hostels I've stayed in. Anyone can make a photocopy, but passing it off as a legitimate document is pretty difficult.

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devmach 4793 days ago
> Do you refuse to hand over your passport to hotels that require it for foreign visitors?

In my experience : hotel staff checked my identity, in front of me and that's all. I wouldn't let them go away with my passport, photocopy or keep my passport...

> Do you follow the waiter back to the payment terminal after handing over your credit card to make sure they don't copy it?

I'm not perfectly sure about U.S. but in Germany and Turkey because your card is pin protected they have to swipe your card in front of you, so i don't follow him, i don't have to. Chip & Pin system isn't perfect but if i don't allowed to pay my dinner using my pin and card combo ( like in U.S.) , i pay cash.

In hotels, you can shield your pass against rf-id, you can watch the person who's holding your pass and what's he doing ( you pay attention to your environment and hotel clerk by check-in, right ? ). But in internet you don't have this physical protection layer, once you uploaded your id it's gone, you don't know if airbnb , or in this case their partner, keeping copy of your id or not.

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marcjgm 4792 days ago
Nearly every hotel I've ever experienced make a copy of my passport when they asked me to show it. I don't really care much either way.

I think there are some psychological problems to over come. In countries like Brazil, Germany, France, even using credit cards online can leave users concerned. I think if anything though, this concept of more valid authentication of the people behind a transaction should make large online transactions easier in the future.

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