Then how do you live in this world? You cannot avoid providing a copy of your photo ID to someone at some point in your life.

We really need some sort of standard for sharing specific and limited authenticated info about ourselves to third-party websites that doesn't require sharing a full photo ID.

You can't avoid it, but you can choose to refuse unless there is a legitimate need for it. Very few brick and mortar interactions require it, and at least historically a copy wasn't retained but rather verified on the spot by the business agent.

We really don't need a standard for sharing it online, at least nothing easy for businesses to implement. There are very few legitimate scenarios for an online service to ask for that. Online pharmacy, online signup with a bank, and online government interactions are the only that immediately come to mind.

I'm not even sure that the pharmacy case is legitimate now that I think about it. I don't need ID when I go in person. The prescriber can validate the mailing address for them.

If you need to buy Sudafed in a pharmacy you need a drivers license, and I believe they record the information somehow. Presumably online alcohol or marijuana sales would also require some retained evidence that a dl was presented. Maybe car insurance too.

Sudafed in the US is an odd exception in that it's regulated but doesn't require a prescription. In comparison you can pick up an opiate prescription without ID (or at least I was able to several years ago).

> Presumably online alcohol or marijuana sales would also require some retained evidence that a dl was presented.

Why? Is that required for in person purchases where you are? I thought violations were typically caught with sting operations. I don't see why online should be any different.

> Maybe car insurance too.

Why? I guess the provider could choose to for due diligence if they felt there might be fraud. But I'm struggling to come up with any realistic scenarios. For what it's worth I've never once been asked for any official documentation in order to purchase car insurance. Simply provided information over the phone and received documents in the mail a few days later.

Sure, if I'm applying for a mortgage, or boarding an airplane.

Just to register for one-more-app / one-more-webboard? Nope.

You use judgement. I’d upload my id to a passport renewal site provided by the govt.

Some private app for rating other human beings? Nope.

you have higher trust in your government IT services than I do on mine

Well I hope you didn’t trust this particular private app!

I mean if my government IT services are idiots they could easily leak a digital copy of my ID without me having to provide said digital copy.

Providing a digital copy of my ID to someone who otherwise would have no copy of my ID, digital or otherwise, is a different matter.

This is a great question.

I dislike it to such a degree that I try to avoid services that require it.

Sometimes, however, it's worth trying to access services without giving the ID and just saying oh I'd like to keep that private or just not providing it and submitting an application for services without it.

Additionally, try to apply in person as often they'll accept paper.

It doesn't work in the majority of situations but it's worth a try.

I show it to people, when needed, but don't send out copies.

Especially the IRS? eg, ID.me?

Most people don't actually require ID.me to deal with the IRS, even if e-filing.

Unless you lost your last return and need to request a trancript

I mean yeah, I'm extremely uncomfortable with commercial ID solutions when accessing government services. When I can I even avoid government websites that have captchas or other third party resources on them but that's becoming increasingly unworkable. It's absurd that I should be required to leak my personal information to third parties in order to make use of a government service (ie something with no competition that I am legally obligated to use).

For the IRS it doesn't even make sense because I can drop paper forms in the mail. Don't need any ID whatsoever for that.

I don't trust dropping any PII/payment-related forms in the mail either, stemmed from a recent experience in which a NYC's DoF had used my information to pay for services on my behalf without authorization.

Seems like Western governments are pushing for this to be the default to interact with almost any website soon enough. You know, to "protect the children." Soon you will have to nope out of the entire internet.

maybe AI will become good enough to create realistic IDs

Will..? Bruh, it HAS. Since about 1.5years ago.

Last time I did a certification exam (CKA) I had to provide an ID to the online proctoring people.

Any sort of fintech (including crypto exchanges) is going to require photo ID scans (and possibly even some sort of live selfie stream, to make sure the scan isn't from some leak) for KYC reasons.

Our common, accepted knowledge - and what we should demand - is that all KYC be concentrated in actual banks.

Actual banks (not fintech barnacles) enjoy a very privileged position in terms of verifying identity and legal mechanisms afforded to them.

If a non-bank actor can verify against an actual bank, that should be enough…

It is absurd that, for instance, a small saas/iaas provider should perform any form of KYC when we can match a successful payment against a bank.