Instagram will ask “suspicious” accounts to upload their ID for verification
Aug 14, 2020
Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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In an attempt to further beat trolls and bots, Instagram will soon ask some users to verify their identity. If it notices a “potential inauthentic behavior,” Instagram will ask suspicious users to submit their government ID.
According to Instagram, the new policy won’t affect most regular users like you or me. It’s aimed at accounts “potentially engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior,” those where the majority of followers are in a different country to their location or those with signs of automation (bots). These accounts will be asked to confirm who they are by uploading a valid ID. Once their information is verified, their account will function as usual unless there’s a reason for further investigation.
“IDs will be stored securely and deleted within 30 days once our review is completed,” Instagram writes, “and won’t be shared on the person’s profile as pseudonymity is still an important part of Instagram.” Note that you can’t upload photos of your ID that have been digitally modified to hide information. Instead, Instagram asks you to physically cover any sensitive information on your ID:
“We ignore any sensitive information on your ID that is not required for our review, such as your ID number or social security number. Please physically cover any non-essential information on your ID before you take a photo of the document.”
Other than verifying suspicious accounts and fighting bots, there are a few more cases when Instagram will ask for a copy of your ID:
- To confirm that the account you’re trying to access belongs to you.
- To confirm or edit your age.
- To process payments.
- To help prevent abuse such as scams or phishing.
According to Engadget, the policy change comes just in time for the 2020 election. Instagram has already been under fire for not sanctioning election meddling in 2016. By introducing the identity verification, the app reportedly is trying to avoid making the same mistake.
Now, while this decision could be a good solution to stop bots, it could raise other concerns. Although Instagram will delete photos of your ID, they will still remain stored for 30 days. And perhaps you remember that users’ private data have been exposed due to a bug. I can only hope that Instagram’s new policy will indeed affect only a small number of users and really target only those that behave in a suspicious manner.
[via Engadget]
Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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20 responses to “Instagram will ask “suspicious” accounts to upload their ID for verification”
What could possibly go wrong there? One data breach away from a real disaster.
Yep.
Then it needs to be every account.
I’d want a blue verified ✔ symbol attached to both my FB and IG if that’s the case.
That makes 2 of us
Next will be “send a nude” to prove you’re human. ?
that’s violates their policy. You need to obscure the nipples.
Kryn Sporry what if it’s for “verification purposes?” Do bots have naughty bits?
John Albers-Mead that’s the catch 22 issue. You have to send it for verification purposes but when you do you get banned for violating their policy…
YES!!!
100% not happening. I’d part with Instagram in a heartbeat before complying. Even if it’s legit, it sounds like a phishing scam.
Today i was going in Instagram App and it says i have to move my head in some weird angles that they can verify that im a real person and not a bot.
What are the odds that the vast majority of verification needs will be from conservative users?
Fuck that shit. If that happens to me then ??
I just was prompted to take a video of my face from all angles. When I try to submit the video it keeps giving me a ” An error occured while uploading, please try again” message that I cant get around no matter how many times I try to submit it. It’s gotta be some sort of bug on Instagrams side but i no longer have access to my own account.
same
Me too did you ever get it to work?
Is this legal to request a photo of the person holding a number in both hands as if this was a criminal . Can Instagram be sued for that ? Is it this a humiliation to users ? Are they not smart enough to use other methods to verify the identity ?
thakur_vivek_singh_738 meri id galti se Hat gai hai es liye Mai galti svikar karta hu ki jo galti mujhse hui hai vo ab dobara nahi hogi es liye meri id Punah vapas kar dijiye please
itz_dipesh_789