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As an estate owner (Sentience (163,121,25)), I got an email to test out the Age Verification as outlined by the official Second Life blog post, Identity Verification Comes to Second Life. When I initially tried, the links gave me the infamous 404 error, but being persistent I tried again after making a new shirt, and voila - I was verified. That isn't really a big deal, though - but it is when you consider which ID I used.

The International Twist

Because of who I am in real life, I have identification in two different countries (it matches, so don't go there). To truly test the system, I opted to not use my US identification/Social Security Number, instead using my [w:Trinidad and Tobago] driver's license. Not only was there a listing for Trinidad and Tobago under countries (something I did not expect), the entire process took only a few seconds. Intriguing. In Trinidad and Tobago, driver's license information isn't even available between places where you renew your license! This would imply that someone, somewhere, has the driver's license information for Trinidad and Tobago in a database. Amusingly, the licensing offices in Trinidad and Tobago don't seem to have that information available for when one loses one's driving permit, etc. That by itself is interesting - but what is also interesting are real world privacy concerns related to that. How is it that some third party organization can verify me, yet in the very same country that the license was issued one has to leaf through old paper log books if one loses one's license? Offtopic, but worth mentioning - especially since this third party now knows that I have a Second Life account. I wonder how much they will sell that database for?

The Legal Aspect

Benjamin Duranske wrote Commentary: Details on Second Life Identity Verification Released - Now We’re Talking Business, and I will agree to what he writes. Of interest is this:

...For lawyers who are contemplating a virtual world practice, it’s fantastic news. I have, in the past, cautioned attorneys against giving legal advice or taking on representation that is entirely in-world on the grounds that if they didn’t know who their clients were and where they were located, the lawyers would run a serious risk of creating a conflict of interest, and potentially be on the hook for unauthorized practice of law. Now, I’d modify that advice. Attorneys who are giving legal advice to anonymous avatars are potentially making a big mistake, but with verification on both sides and sufficient attention paid to local rules on attorney-client confidentiality, contact with clients and potential clients via avatars is much more reasonable.

Keeping the lawyers happy is probably a good move - but I'm still not convinced that everything is above board on the age verification.

Will it make inworld businesses more reliable? No. Will it keep every [w:ponzi scheme] at bay? No. Will it cause babies to be born naked? Maybe.

The Redux

Some people don't want to submit to age verification - I completely understand that perspective; there is an issue of privacy that many will find troublesome - I know I don't particularly like my information floating around in databases, especially after having read and reviewed [w:Daniel J. Solove]'s The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age recently. I don't know that when Linden Lab says 'Our verification provider will only use information to provide a match code and the only information stored by Linden Lab will be whether or not there was a match.' that this is necessarily true; I have no documentation from the verification provider stating that they will not store my information and sell it in database form.

I'm not altogether happy about the lack of information from the third party folk who are verifying my information. That is a big gaping hole as far as I am concerned; the agreement between Linden Lab and Aristotle's Integrity should probably be viewable. In essence, if you want me to demonstrate that I am trustworthy - you are supposed to do the same - or at least lie convincingly.

This is a beta, I participated, and I really have nothing to hide. Still, it is unnerving if one understands the implications of the database of information which is being used to verify that information. What else do they have? And who says that they won't use my information in other ways? Like the genie out of the bottle, I leap into a government/corporate [w:Panopticon] information architecture... or so you may think. I just know I was already there.

/me waves at all the databases used to profile me.