Age verification enters Grid-wide beta
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 2:19 PM by: Robin LindenThe Age Verification feature (now available in beta) will be included in our release candidate today. This means that estate and parcel owners can now voluntarily flag their land if it contains adult content, and Residents can choose to access these restricted parcels by verifying that they are, in fact, adults. Age Verification is the latest of a number of tools and services to help Residents control and manage their own Second Life experiences.
As we’ve blogged several times before, age verification is strictly voluntary for Residents and landowners. Residents who do not choose to age-verify and don’t visit land marked by the landowner as restricted to age-verified Residents, will see no difference in their Second Life experiences.
Furthermore, please be assured no personal information that is supplied for age verification is stored or otherwise used by Linden Lab or its verification partner. For more information on our privacy policy, please go to http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php
For Residents
If you choose to age-verify, simply go to www.secondlife.com/account/verification.php and follow the on-screen instructions. Also, you will be able to age-verify multiple alt accounts, none of which will be visible in your profile.
For Estate Owners & Parcel Owners
Enforcing age verification on estates and parcels is voluntary.
Upon launch, the default setting will be to continue to allow all adults (verified and unverified) to access your land. We do encourage estate and parcel owners with adult-oriented content and activities (e.g. of an excessively violent or graphic sexual nature) to flag their land to be restricted to age-verified adults. Based on feedback from you and Concierge landowners on our first prototype, you’ll also see that we’ve made several changes to improve access management.
Whether you’re a Resident or landowner, age verification provides more confidence that in areas that require age verification, you are not engaging with minors in any inappropriate behaviors or providing them access to adult-oriented content.
Second Life is a platform that offers Residents around the world the ability to create content that is mature, sometimes uniquely so. As we continue to develop and improve this feature, we have to be sensitive to the complex social, cultural, legal and regulatory issues that go with being a global platform.
During the beta program, Age Verification is free to all estate and parcel owners and free to all Residents. No end date has been set for the beta.
Finally, since this is a beta feature, you may experience bugs or delays though we have every hope they will be minimal. We ask for your patience as we improve the functionality to be as smooth and user-friendly as possible. If you have issues, please utilize the Second Life Support Portal.
Thanks again for your feedback and helping us create the tools which shape your Second Life experience.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:28 PM
And then SL burned… i simply suggest that no one flag their land…
December 5th, 2007 at 2:28 PM
How about a clear, unambiguos definition of what constitutes :adult material” pper LL?
THAT would be extremly helpful.
Sooz
December 5th, 2007 at 2:28 PM
When I went to the website above Internet explorer came at me with this warning. Sounds like a big problem already.
The security certificate presented by this website was issued for a different website’s address.
Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server.
We recommend that you close this webpage and do not continue to this website.
Click here to close this webpage.
Continue to this website (not recommended).
More information
If you arrived at this page by clicking a link, check the website address in the address bar to be sure that it is the address you were expecting.
When going to a website with an address such as https://example.com, try adding the ‘www’ to the address, https://www.example.com.
If you choose to ignore this error and continue, do not enter private information into the website.
For more information, see “Certificate Errors” in Internet Explorer Help.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:30 PM
[...] « Age verification enters Grid-wide beta [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 2:31 PM
It looks like we are going to find out how this all plays out.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:32 PM
hmm we will consent, LL, to the verification… but
should my info become available on the internet, im gonna sue. fair warning LL
December 5th, 2007 at 2:35 PM
“During the beta program, Age Verification is free to all estate and parcel owners and free to all Residents. No end date has been set for the beta.”
Once out of beta we intend to charge you suckers for a feature you voted against that is being added for our corporate ass-covering benefit and is quite possibly in breach of your local privacy legislation. This will improve your experience in ways that we can’t be bothered to explain to you. Have a nice day.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:38 PM
99% of SL is against something. Linden Labs listens carefully.
And then they implement it anyway.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:40 PM
Hopefully this will ensure that under aged solicitation is stopped. Too much stachatory*sp..? O.o* rape.
This also paves the way for many new plans, that I hope LL will carry out…
December 5th, 2007 at 2:41 PM
1) Isn’t the main grid for adults only, anyway? If ever, age verification should be on account creation then to make sense.
2) Many will have problems to verify there age, even *being* an adult, so problems will come…
3) Many non-adults will have means to cheat around that verification.
So where is the benefit of all this? All what happens is annoyance and trouble.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:41 PM
I praise LL, if they can manage this correctly. I personally think all sandboxes except sandbox island should be flagged, and you will see an INSTANT reduction in the number of griefing problems. Why, you ask? Because all that free accounts did was open the gates to any minor who sees the homepage and wants to get access to some sort of material deemed “adult”. As if it were not tempting enough for them to break the rules entering an “over 18″ world, LL went and provided them with the means to get INTO that world. This is a step in the right direction.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:41 PM
The link to the “partners” (Integrity/Aristotle?) privacy policy referenced on the age verification form simply redirects you right back to said form. You can’t honestly expect anyone to sign up without the option to review the specific policy of the company that will be handling our data?
December 5th, 2007 at 2:43 PM
oh, sign up, but sue when your info is out on the internet
December 5th, 2007 at 2:43 PM
“Age Verification Failed”
This system is —-. Fix it or remove it.
Country of residence: Belgium
Type of Verification: Both ID-card and Drivers License fail.
I’m glad some decent SL residents are working on AgeLock. Let’s hope it becomes the standard and people refuse to use this retarded LL system.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:45 PM
“As we’ve blogged several times before…”
you forgot to link to this gem of a blog:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/05/31/keeping-second-life-safe-together/
December 5th, 2007 at 2:46 PM
I have tried to verify my age with first a valid german ID- card and afterwards with a valid german passport. Both verifications failed, however both documents are valid (still for some years) and I have n o t moved to another place since years (what your system’s text offers as a possibility for failure). I support the idea of verification of age in order to protect minors from adult contents - but then….then it least it should work. Quite dissappointing this thing… greetz - Lara
December 5th, 2007 at 2:46 PM
Why ist it, that my firefox shows me a certificate warning when I go to https://www.secondlife.com/account/verification.php
I don’t wanna log in on this page as long as it does.
S.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:46 PM
Age Verification Failed!
Lets see, i know who i am
The state i live in knows who i am (i used my drivers license)
I havent moved for over 5 years
I know the last 4 of my SS#
Using all the information above, it still says FAILED. You should change it from classification of Beta to “Feature” or “Jira fixed”. Beta gives the impression that the thing might actually work, while the rest of the world knows “Jira”"Feature” or “Resolved” actually mean you used the virtual duct tape, but its still busted
December 5th, 2007 at 2:46 PM
Why do these grid changing announcements seem to come out of this air. Yes, We all knew this was coming but not even a hint in the last 8 months.
And what does this even matter with the Sheep “adult grid” coming in spring…..everything adult will flock to that grid or fail!
Welcome to the new Teen grid everyone!!
/Rant over
Alisha
December 5th, 2007 at 2:47 PM
Great, Age verification didn’t work with my identity card.
LindenLabs, fix this please… or give a alternative for the verfication.
Remember, there are alot of ppl without driver licence or passwort, identity card is the most common in germany.
Fix it or you will loose many german ppl.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:51 PM
They put a lot of work into this just to make it “voluntary” ..it’s a curious thing.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:51 PM
hmm which ID do we use? name on the account or name on the card?
December 5th, 2007 at 2:51 PM
I don’t see why people are complaining about this feature. It is completely voluntary. If you don’t want to flag your land as adult content, then don’t. If you don’t want to verify your age, then don’t. If you haven’t verified your age and you want to go somewhere that is flagged as adult only, too bad. The person who owns that land doesn’t want you there. It isn’t Linden Lab’s fault. All LL is doing is providing more options for land owners. Some people would rather not have to face being sued because some kid snuck into their sim. This option will help prevent that.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:51 PM
This ranks right up there with “improved” search, which we didn’t need, voice which causes more problems than I can count, and the new UI which draws a hard vacuum.
Fix the problems already. Stop with the feature bloat!!!!!!
Marcus
December 5th, 2007 at 2:51 PM
I will be phoning billing momentarily to cancel my sims. You clearly have not listened to what residents want. This ends my three year stint hoping that this would remain ‘Your world, your imagination’. Clearly not.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:52 PM
“I don’t see why people are complaining about this feature. It is completely voluntary.”
NOW, yes. After the beta… well, it’ll still be voluntary in a way.
But you get banned if you don’t do it.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:52 PM
license* or SSN for that matter… i know people that have alts that use different names :/
hell i do that with email as well… and just about any other game
December 5th, 2007 at 2:53 PM
Great. Neither my passport nor my ID card work.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:54 PM
update @16, certificate error
It seems that this only happens when you are already logged in.
Page requested is “http://www.secondlife.com/…bla”, cert-owner is “secondlife.com” - maybe removing “www! from the link would do it? not sure.
S.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:55 PM
1. The age-verification form at https://secure-web18.secondlife.com/account/verification.php has a link to “privacy policy here.” This is an anchor link (#) that only leads to the form itself.
2. I’m submitting information that I already submitted with my credit card information. Why the redundancy?
3. They need a driver’s license number??? I opted for the last 4 of my SSN.
AND THEN MY AGE VERIFICATION FAILED!!
So, what age am I? Last I checked, I was 30.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:57 PM
i have no problem to send a copy from my identity card as PDF to LindenLabs, because this online verification isn’t really save and it works only at 80% well. Provide me a email-address where i can pass the copy of my identity card and i will send it promptly.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:57 PM
And it didn’t work. Why am I not surprised?
Believe me, if this thing doesn’t get fixed before it becomes mandatory - and I wouldn’t put that past LL - a hug number of people are going to pack upp and leave
December 5th, 2007 at 2:57 PM
WOOHOO! FINALLY!
Verify or stay off my island! LOL
Hey, do I believe it’s genuine? That ‘Integrity’ actually verifies? That it actually works? Hell no. LOL
I don’t care. It’s another tool for me to prevent griefers and 1-2-day n00bs out.
Go go Lindens!
December 5th, 2007 at 2:58 PM
I think once a certain number of people are on board with this, and it appears not such a big deal after all, they’ll make it mandatory.
Besides, wants to needlessly restrict their audience especially, if they’re in SL to create a successful business?
December 5th, 2007 at 2:59 PM
Can we have some details about this age verification system?
Does Linden Lab still intend to use the same disreputable company that has “accidentally” shared private information with advertisers several times?
Will the third party still require a social security number, which is illegal to require in whole or in part for this purpose?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:00 PM
So.. wife is immigrating to US, doesn’t have a SSN or driver’s license here.. no other options listed.. I think this falls under the normal “LL didn’t think this through before doing it” category. Perhaps Yoon can help clarify the process of denying people who are immigrating from being able to verify.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:01 PM
“Our partner performing the age verification has published its privacy policy here.” I found this in the My Account section of the SL website.
There is a link provided for me to click on to view the privacy policy of said “partner”, yet when I click on it, it takes me to the exact same page on which I clicked the link to view the policy.
Anyone else having that problem? And can anyone direct me where to find this information?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:02 PM
Whoo Ray! A dark day for griefers everywhere!
As someone who runs an “adult” business, I cheer this. Credit Card was never a good option.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:04 PM
I’m not going to verify, and I’m not going to restrict access to my land based on verification status, and I am not going to comply in any other way with this regime. I hope I am not alone in this stance.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:04 PM
I’d be all for this if it was actually worth the paper it was written on. Unfortunately it’s hopelessly flawed and far less secure than payment info used. With payment info on file you get a paper record, with this you get nowt. So you’re not going to know someone else is using your info to be “verified” which means lots of verified minors with no paper trail.
Nothing has been addressed with the flaws of this process in beta and now it’s getting rolled out further. Integrity cannot verify the details they ask many citizens outside of the United States by official means, which begs the question, why are they asking for those details?
Verified status does not mean the person who went through the verification is over 18.
So whereas I applaud the idea of verification, the execution is flawed. Trusting someone based on them being verified is undoubtedly very naive.
You guys should have went back to the drawing board on this one. This is a recipe for disaster.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:05 PM
COMING SOON: race verification; height verification; weight verification; marital status verification; bust/’package’-size verification (with associated gender verification).
%-S
I still want to know why I should verify through a company that advertises data for sale to US political bodies (and presumably anyone else with deep pockets)?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:06 PM
Well, that worked flawlessly abeit one minor cert problem (which is fixable VERY simply), I am confirmed as an Adult, nice to know I exist on a database somewhere.
And as an ex sim manager, it’s nice to know there is a tool which will stop stone dead most of the griefing attacks by simply allowing verified accounts only.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:06 PM
So, to recap:
1) The verification page has security issues of it’s own.
2) The “privacy policy” link simply redirects to the form (so no privacy policy in sight).
3) Linden Labs STILL continues to sidestep or ignore the question of “how much will this cost me?”
I’m all about trust. But, before I trust you with my information, you need to earn it by answering our questions, fixing these issues, and making this information readily available. Right now, it looks very shady. To be honest, it looks like Linden Lab is trying to hide something from me about the age-verification. That makes me uncomfortable and leads me to not want to it.
~r.V.J.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:07 PM
I took at look at it, figured that the last-4-ssn choice was the lesser of the evils and the validation failed. Considering I own the property where I reside and have done so for a score of years, the verification system is wrong. In view of the multitude of problems, not the least of which is its very existence, I seriously doubt I will ever be inclined to try it again. Sorry LL, you had your chance and you blew it.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:07 PM
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid idea.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:08 PM
well well, all of the options available is ILLEGAL for us in EU to transfer over the net to a 3rd party outside EU, so much for that fantastich worldwide solution.
I MUST BREAK THE LAWS TO VERIFY DAMN IT!!!
December 5th, 2007 at 3:10 PM
Failed???
It was a success for Aristotle. It failed because they didn’t know you - yet. Now they do. You just supplied them with info they obviously didn’t have! And their data-mining op gets ever larger with each new “failure”.
Don’t you just love it?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:10 PM
Ahh, just when I was beginning to feel good about SL again, having just celebrated my first rezz-day….. and we’re back to this identity “verification” charade. It verifies nothing except the level of addiction of your audience and protects no one from anything. Any teen currently on the grid (surprise surprise) has access to a parent’s ID, and, quite shockingly, even knows their parent’s name, address, and in which drawer the SSN card is kept….
Surely I am not the only one here who had sex before age 18. The only sign that the experience scarred me was that I spend a lot of time in a virtual world called second life. Or used to…
<—-not going to verify to visit a virtual world
December 5th, 2007 at 3:10 PM
Guys, what a proof of uttter clumsiness!!
You want to give us an age verification that wasn’t wanted, and when we want to try it out, what happens:
* Security warning that the security certificate is not valid, and warning for possible phishing of personal data - WOW, that’s reassuring;
* Change the country as I don’t live in the US - Crap, script errors and page asks me to debug - no I won’t debug - oh, I can’t select an estate that is in my Country, I only get the US States;
* Ok heck, I’ll continue, let me select to what I want to be identified - hmmmmmm, blank drop down box, ok so my identity can’t be verified.
Gents, please, this isn’t reassuring at all!!!!!!!!!
And surely not to give my identity info to anyone. These are pages that will be from day 1 the ideal hacking location.
Yeah, we can get all the personal information of anyone using a stupid page.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:11 PM
We are warned not to give out out passwords even to friends for a game, But you want us to give our personal info to a bunch of strangers. In previouos posts you stated it only takes a couple minutes to verify, but the 3rd party will keep the info for 2 years.
My credit card/verified paypal are proof I am an adult in order to enter and adult only grid. But then you say they aren’t proof I am an adlut once in the world. With all this doublespeak it appears those working at LL must be studying the book “1984″
December 5th, 2007 at 3:11 PM
Feature is still under development. Understood and accepted.
However, my feeling is that it will work for less than 50% of US residents and 0% of international residents.
Honestly, I doubt the “final” version will be able to verify users from China, India, Sudan, Latvia, Algeria, or Thailand.
I see this as a big problem. Don’t you agree?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:11 PM
That is so wrong and stupid in so many levels…
First: I thought the TOS stated clearly that SL Main Grid was for adults only, adults meaning people over 18, and that younger people had the Teen Grid to fool around. If that is true, then that age verification thing is useless. If a kid sneaks up on SL, then it’s the parent’s fault, not yours. If this isn’t true anymore, then it’d have been nice to inform us, so we can all move to a more friendly environnment.
Second: the age verification system cannot verify anything or anyone accurately. I am highly doubting that even the US Federal governments would allow a company like LL or Aristotle/Integrity to get their greedy hands on the personal datas of their citizens. And I know for a fact that no european government will hand over any information on it’s citizens to you or Arostotle/Integrity or anyone else anywhere in the world. This is just against their laws and against the quite strict Internet safety policies they’ve been teaching the population all theses years.
Third: You speak about dealing with the “legal and regulatory issues that go with being a global platform.” I am sorry to inform you that, as a european citizen, I am forbidden by the laws of the European Union and of my country to give out such informations to any company over the internet.
Fourth: I have always been very edgy on giving out any private information about myself on the internet, as security can never be guaranteed, which means that, one day, someone might find a way to get them. All major sites got hacked, Amazon, E-Bay, even you. But you are asking far more informations than what any otehr big sites around there asks for. Pron sites only asks for CC informations to prove your age, why would LL ask for so much informations I feel like being interrogated by some police service?
I tell you, if you do really implement these, then it will drive off a lot of people. Remember that 60% of your players are europeans. Europeans will not give you their infos, and they’ll simply move to another platform.
The majority of your customer base told you they’re against that. You didn’t listened, as often. It ahd little effect on you the previous times. But maybe this time you stepped a bit too far away from us. Too bad… for you…
December 5th, 2007 at 3:12 PM
[...] Just announced on the Official Second Life Blog: The Age Verification feature (now available in beta) will be included in our release candidate today. This means that estate and parcel owners can now voluntarily flag their land if it contains adult content, and Residents can choose to access these restricted parcels by verifying that they are, in fact, adults. Age Verification is the latest of a number of tools and services to help Residents control and manage their own Second Life experiences. [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 3:14 PM
And, lo and behold, as somebody who lives in a country which is not my own and where I am no citizen (not an uncommon fact for somebody who works in IT), I fail verification with both my passport and ID, using my actual true data. Grumble.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:17 PM
I’d like to buy a cheap sim, so if anyone is handing their sim back to the Lindens over this, sell it to me cheap instead.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:19 PM
I see, so I have to go to a site that has the wrong cert to put in the most personal of my particular numbers so I can safely go somewhere and find a bunch of questionable people with primmy crotch poles running around chasing pixelchix that prolly aren’t female at all? Hmmm, what to do, what to do?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:20 PM
Lovely. But IDV is not going to work.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:23 PM
I get a security certificate error trying to access the age-verification page and a warning “You might be connecting to a website that is pretending to be secondlife.com”.
…and you expect me to divulge my personal information here?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:24 PM
Integrity/Aristotle sells data to US political campaigns.
The USA is about to enter a Presidential election year.
The Internet was a proven battleground in the last election and is likely to be even more important in the battle for hearts and minds in 08.
SecondLife is (allegedly) the bleeding edge of the Internet, where its most active users may be reliably and regularly found and engaged with, perhaps even encouraged to engage with others.
A step too far in suppositions? Perhaps, but it is an interesting supposition nonetheless,
As for me, I’m delighted now that I sold my sim when I had the opportunity. Renewing my premium account? Sorry Lab, but I don’t think so. As an adult I prefer to spend my money with those who treat me as such and don’t insult my intelligence so blatantly and with such alarming regularity.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:27 PM
Given LL’s traditional laissez-faire role in governing the grid, such a scheme marks something of a break. One plausible rationale that’s been put forward is Integrity’s offer of legal indemnity, though it’s unclear whether that insurance would extend to residents as well.
Still, it’s apparent that LL is insistent on implementing this scheme, absolutely without modification, despite the justified privacy concerns expressed, the legitimacy of Integrity, and indeed, the legality of soliciting such information from citizens of countries other than the US.
Deeply unfortunate.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:29 PM
In addition, if Linden Lab should ever file for bankruptcy or merge with another company, we may sell the information you provide to us on this site to a third party or share your personal information with any company with whom we merge.
This is in LL’s privacy policy statement, So when LL goes bankrupt, and it will do so if it continues with these ill thought out plans, our personal information will be in the public domain. I am going to have to think really hard on this matter, it is a shame because I,like most residents, enjoy Second Life. Even all the bugs and crashes are part of the experience that I enjoy. But if I am leaving myself open to Identity theft then I wonder if I should pack my bags and leave.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:30 PM
RIP Second Life!
December 5th, 2007 at 3:31 PM
I Have just recently moved. Both addresses get me the big ol’ Failed.
(I see others have had problems with this as well.)
How dose this effect me? Not a whole lot. I do not go into areas that will be (Adult Verified). Although the fact that Linden Lab has screwed up this beta (It says Linden Lab will not send out my info but nothing about the company there partnered with.) and the Link to the Privacy Policy is broken!
This is not some stupid bug effecting the client. This is something dealing with your paying customers information! A whole different ballpark here. Beta? WTF? this is not something you put into BETA!
It is either not for public beta or final release.
So Yeah. Where is the Blog Post telling us (Sorry we screwed up with your information! (Resolved))
There is a heap of things that make the outcome of this more of a negative then a positive.
Fix it.
1. State the problems in front of Linden Lab
2. Create a Path to Fix/Make right the things that have been done wrong.
3. Work towards the goal on that path.
That would fix it for me.
Thank You,
Soma
December 5th, 2007 at 3:32 PM
Whatever happened to reaponsible parenting…
Any minors on the grid are here fraudulently…
All this is doing is enabling minors access to the grid.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:34 PM
For everyone who is applauding this measure, please for the rest of us, go now to try to validate yourself, and tell us if you were successful? You can’t enter your own Adult parcel, if the system fails your verification.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:36 PM
I am simply not going to verify until I am forced to by not being able to go to locations I want to. if none of the land owners turn this on no problem if they do then I will verify and maybe by then LL will have answered some of the questions we have. It is a good I idea I just want some of the questions above answered.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:36 PM
[...] Verification in SL is here, my policy. As just posted to the SL official blog here, Age Verification is now in the Release Candidate Client. So It will be here officially soon. So [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 3:36 PM
Well..
Unsecure, and flawed. Is age verification good? Yes.
Is this solution good? No. I asked the Ombudsman responsible for Private Data Protection and Privacy, and he said: well, it’s against the law to ask for such things.
Cool, no? So, should I break the law now?
Think. That’s the first step in every ‘project’. Gather info, constraints, possibilities, evaluate them, and THINK.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:37 PM
It seems to me that LL have already provided us with a means to flag our content as “adult;” that is to say, we can flag a parcel as Mature. That being the case, it also seems to me to be LL’s responsibility to verify a resident’s age upon registration. Why should we pay for and trust a separate company to do this, particularly when their privacy policy is inaccessible and their security compliance is questionable.
I’m curious about the ultimate point and purpose of this dubious feature. Is it so LL need not be responsible for holding resident information? Is it so they can avoid liability in case said information gets stolen? Avoid liability for minors accessing adult content, because LL’s own verification process is faulty? Is it so they can further define for us what constitutes “acceptable behavior” on the grid, and push out tbd non-corporate-friendly content?
The suggestion that LL have cut a deal so that this third-party can provide our detailed information to political pollsters during an election year is an interesting — if alarming — thought as well.
*looks harder for that posted privacy policy*
December 5th, 2007 at 3:38 PM
Still using Integrity/Aristotle?
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2003/12/61543
December 5th, 2007 at 3:38 PM
Well, I was rather frustrated in my attempt to validate anything… After trying all documents out (none are accepted), I used the Driver’s License: it has a standard format (so it’s the same format as for the rest of Europe), everything that LL asks is neatly printed in block letters there (there is absolutely no way I can make a typo that way), and, well, the site refuses to validate me anyway.
I’m trying to get more Portuguese residents to try it out. There might be a trick to it (eg. no accented characters, since they’re not shown on the Driver’s License either), like skipping a value or two, to make sure it validates correctly. So far, with several combinations, it didn’t work.
I subscribe to @30 Damona Rau — an alternative way of getting validated if the silly Aristotle database doesn’t have any of my data there.
Oh, yes, and what I’m doing might be illegal, but I’ll get validated by LL first, and face the local law-enforcing agencies later
One thing at a time… I work for a living in SL, I can’t afford to be shut out of it just because Aristotle’s database doesn’t work properly!
December 5th, 2007 at 3:39 PM
The process was painless, though a small point about Mandatory Fields “States” show up only US States. If the field is to mandatory how do non US Citzens comply? ( It works leaving blank but some text next to it may be a good idea explaining this)
My main question is what happens next? is there a box ticked in your profile to say your verified?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:41 PM
[...] Identity theft enters Grid-wide beta « Official Linden Blog Filed under: Blogging, Linden, Second Life — Siobhan Taylor @ 23:39 Age verification enters Grid-wide beta « Official Linden Blog [...]
December 5th, 2007 at 3:42 PM
Strange LL establishes an Age verification that no one wants. In the same way they leave accounts of people without legal age active. abuse reports in that case didn’t take any affect (Abuse: E:4907 P:1 |Rhein Tal| (Rhein Tal) [Age] {******* ***} “suspicion of age violation”)
but I’ve got a warning because I am indicted to do some indecent things on a PG Sim named . , on a day I wasn’t online lol.
Bye the way age verification don’t work for me (iam german too). Oh i must change my membership plan. i think monthly premium is better so I can run away each month if my second life experience gets to worse.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:42 PM
To test the age verifacation systym I set a small empty parcel to age restricted. I had a friend of mine (who has age verifided) try to enter it. She couln’t, it said for the parcel is restisrited to age verified. (she already is). It also asked her if she wanted to verify. It sent her to the age verify page which said that her age was already verified. LL needs to get the bugs out.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:45 PM
YAY… about time!
December 5th, 2007 at 3:45 PM
From the WIRED article:
“But in reality, Aristotle’s site allowed anyone to register and purchase lists under a phony name and address. The site asked only for a name, the state where the buyer resided, an e-mail address and a phone number. Fields for mailing address and company name were optional.
By registering first as Condoleezza Rice and then as Britney Spears, a Wired News reporter purchased two lists containing data on about 1,700 California voters and 900 South Carolina voters.”
I’m making protest t-shirts and they will be available by tomorrow, free, in-world and at SLExchange. If anyone wants to distribute them, let me know. The first one says this:
“Not verifying.
Not bluffing.”
December 5th, 2007 at 3:46 PM
Well, I verified.
Of course, as I did so, I noted that with this step the Lindens have ensured that the SecondLife platform is unlikely to achieve even a fraction of the goals stated by Rosedale at SLCC: supplanting the Internet will be impossible if you cripple the supplanter by limiting its growth, as you will do with AV.
The Internet achieved much of its growth through unfettered “adult” content and nigh-complete anonymity. This does not count.
Combine this with steps against casinos (which frankly only affected me because my customer base dwindled due to less spending cash on some avatars), VAT implementation for European customers without previous notice, and rumors of prices rising in the new year.
I have one thing to say:
Good luck. You’ll need it.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:50 PM
Let me point out that, logging into the Adult Grid of Second Life while under the age of 18 is against the TOS in the first place. When you download SL, as well as sometimes at random when they deem a serious message needs to be sent out to the community, you are asked to agree to the TOS. I cannot think of any other game besides SL that verifies your age with your Social Security Number, Driver’s License, or Passport Info, except someone playing a very serious game of Identity Theft. I am not going to pay SL to verify my age when I’m well over 18 and have already given them other information that they requested previously in order to do this. I have very little faith in their ability to handle such sensitive information. Let me remind all of you about our credit card and password being compromised maybe a year back or so, forcing all residents to change their passwords. In addition, LL did away with any type of age verification in the first place and was not so concerned when they allowed for free accounts at the time. I find it funny that now they are going to make up for this by charging us and asking for private information to verify our age. Although I do understand the importance of verifying age, I think charging us to do it and requesting illegal information from us, ie: social security numbers, is the wrong way to go about it. Please think this through. The more I think about it, if my experience on SL continues to be hindered by more and more hoops I need to jump through just to TP to a sim, the more I’m inclined to move on to something different. Age Verification will not stop griefing. Griefers come in all ages, shapes and sizes. It would be interesting to see how many griefers that have been caught in SL actually were underage. Might be an interesting experiment. Here is another thing to think about.. If you go to an Adult Content Site on the web, what do they ask you? Yup, they want to know if you are over 18 and then they give you the whole deal about if you are not, could be subject to legal action spiel. But they have never asked me for my Social Security Number. In fact, why would I log into Second Life to see naked pixels, when I can just search the web?
This is not the solution. Try again LL. What can the community do as a whole? Well Land Owners could simply not check the little box that says you must be age-verified to visit their land. How important are population numbers to you land owners? Might feel it a bit when the majority of people are not going to bother with age-verification. It is already against TOS to be on the Adult Grid and under-age. If a land owner does decide to only allow people who paid, and submitted DNA samples, then I recommend a complete boycott of their sim. This is what I intend to do. When I’m left with no where to go, and denied the things I enjoy about SL and the freedom to venture out into the community, I will leave SL and take my money with me. I suspect I’m not the only one.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:51 PM
In order to preserve the freedom of those on here, and particularly those in countries where it is illegal to send proof, I shall of course be voluntarily making sure not to set any such thing on my own parcels.
I shall leave from verifying for as long as I can, not because I like to pretend I’m not as old as I really am, but because I 1) disagree with the idea, but in the main because 2) I don’t trust the privacy policies of 3rd party companies as far as I can throw them.
I leave the rest of you to choose wisely.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:53 PM
OK… Best I can see practically every response about of this is VERY negative.
Please every user who wants to maintain a shred of privacy in the digital world REFUSE TO VERIFY OR FLAG YOUR LAND.
I doubt that the verification company will leak data or otherwise compromise our identities to the public, but they still store the information and we have no idea what LL might be doing with it.
As for cooperate ass-covering, everyone using the system has stated MULTIPLE times that they are at least 18 years old. If they are lying they have violated the contract and do not deserve any protection anyway.
Do not f*ck up SL for those of us who wish to remain anonymous. And as for anyone who says that it is optional… just wait. If people start flagging their land the game will become useless for anyone who is unverified.
If LL has the ultimate dream to create an open-source metaverse like internet, this is not the way to start. This is a blatant contradiction to all that LL has said about promoting open source. This truly has me concerned.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:53 PM
Had no problems at all verifying all but one of my alts, and am leaving that one unverified to test parcel access restrictions with. Name, address and last four of my SSN worked fine. Didn’t even have to tell them my gender. (Though if they really are doing a decent cross-check, they knos that anyway.)
This is an ADULT enviironment. Show your ID at the door, or go play at the skate park with the kiddies.
If they misuse my data, I’ll sue them so bad their grandchildren will still be paying off the debt. I’m not worried.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:55 PM
I don’t have a billion years to read all the posts to make sure no-one’s mentioned it before but, it is indeed possible for a UK resident to be an adult and have neither a passport, nor a drivers license. If LL expects me to pay money to get either of these (and they do both cost money) when my CC info should suffice (last I checked you needed to be 18 to obtain a credit card), well, they know where they can go huh?
December 5th, 2007 at 3:56 PM
In the end it comes down to a simple question.
Which matters to you the most… breaking the laws of your own country (where the courts decide your punishments? - assuming you’re not a victim of ID theft and get worse), or breaking the rules of an insignificant game provider, where the worst they can do to you is to stop you playing?
I’ve made my choice.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:57 PM
Well, Ceera. I showed my ID and true data and was denied access. I am not willing to forward to LL a copy of my scanned documents (as that would probably be illegal). So, i am out, unless a provision for people not living in their country of origin is added.
I am in the mood of using profanity, but I am barely restricting myself right now.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:57 PM
For those that want to know, I was successfully verified. Used SS number. And for the record, I’m not for or against it, I just wanted to see if I would have problems.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:59 PM
I see that from an LL public relations viewpoint, choosing Aristotle/Integrity is irreproachable.
However, given their history and technical expertise, I doubt that Aristotle/Integrity can be trusted to maintain confidential the identity of those whom they verify, or to refrain from intrusive data mining of their clientele.
I hope LL’s corporate partnership program is growing quickly; because one breach of confidentiality on Aristotle’s part, and we will see SL’s current customer base dwindle drastically.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:00 PM
I Did not succeed verifying, after using a British drivers license and a Portuguese passport also, while i dont have anything against. It may damage the economy.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:01 PM
WHY do you require only the final four digits of American’s SSN, when you ask Canadians for their entire Social Insurance Number (SIN)?
You might want to spend some time actually READING the website for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. I quote directly from the website:
So, what can I do when asked for my SIN?
Ask if you are required by law to provide it (see list below);
Ask why the person needs it, how it will be used and to whom it will be given;
Your SIN is not a piece of identification. If it is not required by law (and you are not satisfied with the explanation), tell the person you prefer not to use the SIN and offer other identification;
If the organization refuses to give you the product or service unless you give your SIN, complain to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada;
If you would like better legal protection for your SIN, call or write your federal Member of Parliament.
Source: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/fs-fi/02_05_d_02_e.asp
In other words, once Canadians begin to complain to the federal privacy commissioner, you’re going to be getting lots of questions from the Canadian federal government.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:03 PM
Sorry if i feel that this is a stupid idea because:
1. LL has got hacked before.
2. Theres always a handfull of hackers that can steal info off the web. ( Some even make SERIOUS BUSINESS out of it)
3. Everything is broken or on the verge of breaking.
4. Their security is already being breached dayly.
5. I agreed to the TOS that i was 18. <– Biggest reason of all
Sorry you don’t trust me.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:03 PM
Note one sentence in the quote above, direct from Canada’s government:
“Your SIN is not a piece of identification.”
Given that, WHY ARE YOU ASKING FOR IT TO CONFIRM IDENTITY?
December 5th, 2007 at 4:04 PM
Hey everyone, the security certificate message was due to the link starting with “https” instead of “http” and has since been fixed -sorry about that!
December 5th, 2007 at 4:04 PM
Do TG residents that transfer get verified automatically as such we have to provide a pic of an ID card for prof that we are 18? If not then something needs to be done so that they are linked. And also with whom are you partnering with for the verification API? Also the fact that the check box says that you would search through publicly available files seams to me that our PRIVATE info is already leaked into hands it shouldn’t be at all. I myself am not going to go through the proses for it just yet as there are way to many bugs in it for me to think of it in the beta stage.
-Liny
December 5th, 2007 at 4:05 PM
“your world, your imagination” well as long as our imagination follows LL and the moral majority’s.
Not to mention the fact that some people just like short avs.
Nope cant have that! Someone might see you hugging and report you to the Linden Gestapo. Seriously, not to go all Godwin, but you guys might as well bust out the swastikas.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:05 PM
The forum thread to continue feedback is at:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=227899
You need to have payment info on file to access the forums.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:07 PM
Complaints to the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner
—————————————————————————–
If you believe you have a complaint under the Privacy Act or PIPEDA, submit it to us in writing at the following address:
112 Kent Street
Place de Ville
Tower B, 3rd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H3
Please include your full contact details in your letter, including your name, address and the telephone number where you can be reached, and provide as much detail as possible about your complaint.
Note: The Office of the Privacy Commissioner does not process complaints via e-mail. Please submit your complaint by mail.
Source:
http://www.privcom.gc.ca/contactUs/index_e.asp#complaints
December 5th, 2007 at 4:07 PM
This idea is bad bad bad. You want too much information. If you ask for age verification ar sign up, why do you even need this, unless you plan to sell the information…
December 5th, 2007 at 4:07 PM
#70, Gwyneth: I suspect the system has the same problem with German people who have umlauts in their name or address…no document I tried is working, no matter how I spell stuff.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:07 PM
I’m pleased this is and hopefully will continue to be voluntary, even if it goes live.
I don’t see that Linden Lab is, and I quote:
“sensitive to the complex social, cultural, legal and regulatory issues that go with being a global platform.”