[b]Why does the new push by SW admins to "verify" accounts by collecting photos from members feel like a scam?[/b]
Because it is.
This latest feature -supposedly created by our fearless leaders to calm the catfish paranoia generated by a small but active group of users - creates a much, much worse problem.
By requiring that we submit actual photos showing real faces in order to be "verified", it not only creates new suspicion against members who opt not to expose themselves - It opens the door to a whole new threat to privacy based on facial recognition technology.
And the risks have been well known and documented for a long time :
So what's really going on? None of the explanations offfered by Nuno and others clear this mess up at all. Are they totally unaware of the minefield identity theft + facial recognition creates for people with legitimate privacy concerns? Are they completely unaware of risks that have been known to online security specialists since at least 2011?
Maybe we should all just assume that they are, in fact stupid. Well meaning but dumb. Because believing that they would do this for any other reason is really an awful thing.
But well intended or not, I won't be "verifying" anything . And if you care about your own privacy more than some phony green check mark I'd suggest you not play this game either.
Yep. It's filthy horseshit. The super overly used social websites like facebook, twitter, don't require that shit, so... Like drug dealing and stuff ain't happening through them??? If this becomes something you HAVE to do in order to be here, SW is gonna lose A LOT of users. The only reason many of us are here is the comfort of anonymity.
Years ago I was on a site called faceparty. Chat site basically. They were bought by someone else and everyone had to have a photo to remain a member. That was in about 2008. I didn't do it then and I won't do it now.
