It's been said that identity verification is optional. Yesterday something made me thinking if it is really optional and some other things about revealing identity and submitting it to verification. I was standing on Public Help Island when a guy approached and asked for some help with verification. Silently, I cursed the fate and what mentor has to do and headed my browser to Second Life's web-site. But, no way I could help him. He couldn't verify his identity. Verification is still by invitation only, that is for sim owners. So he left it for some other time and went away.
Before he left, I was curious as I usually am, and I took a look at the long dark haired human in front of me, tattoos over his arms and his masculine body. I took a look at his profile. He is transparent, there is a first life tab, and even web tab loading his human's MySpace profile. The two of them, human and the avatar, don't look like each other, but it is the one of the cases you see a good projection of human into metaverse. No, they don't look alike but yes, that avie seems as a great representation of the person behind.
From what I got from groups listed and About me field, he is (between all the rest) into cybersex. He even runs small business connected with love of flesh in this non-flesh world.
There we are! It is not question if he wants to verify. He has to. I can choose, I can ban all the explicit sex clubs from my second life. As many other residents, I can keep my sexual activities to privacy of "meet in the club, fuck at the home". But he cannot. Not if he is to keep his business running. I hear some of you saying that business is business and that it might require some sacrifices.That may be, but most of the small business in second life is more about what we love to do and not about money. And then, isn't that sacrifice a bit too much? Personal data is valuable. In digital world, it is like sacrifice in blood.
Even in the case of this guy, who already shared his human, his meatspace photographs, location on Earth and the rest of the MySpace profile, doing identity verification is one step further. A big step further. It is not sharing who the human behind the avatar is, it is submitting data to unknown company. It is about being in databases, being searchable and filterable, being vulnerable to data stealing…
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