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Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

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Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#51

Post by darklajid »

DominikR wrote: post #32

I am going to get a lot of downvotes for this but I am still curious to hear what solutions the HN community could come up with for the problem Facebook is facing: Some of the accounts have been hacked. You locked the accounts as a security measure. Now you need to validate that some person is the actual owner of the account. How would you solve this problem? (Sending a code via text message to the owners mobile devi…

You cannot. You can only use the facts that the original account creator provided (mail address? postal address?) and nothing else.

You never had a government id to begin with. Maybe my government id doesn't match my account name (I know.. I violated the rules in that case.. Oh I am sooo bad). Maybe there are people with similar/the same name.

How would you make sure that 'government id' presenting person A is really the person that created any specific account?

If you cannot recover the account with the means you were provided during registration/normal usage, bad luck. Government ids won't help here. Ignoring the problems of 'faking' those (how can you judge that these documents are valid if you just get a crappy picture/a xerox or whatever, in lots of languages?) to do more harm than good.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#52

Post by brador »

algorias wrote: post #2

With each passing day, I look less and less like a lunatic for avoiding facebook (and its ilk) like the plague. You should try it.

Google will do the same thing soon. It wants one google account per person, and using real ID is the best way to do that.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#53

Post by andyjohnson0 »

dan1234 wrote: post #34
NemesorZandrak wrote: post #24

I'm from Europe. If they will do it to me I will be forced to stop using Facebook. And I will laugh if they will make it happen in uk as people here don't have such ID's

The UK issues both passports and photographic driving licences. Most people will have at least one of those.

Yes, but there is no requirement to have one. UK law doesn't even require a person to have a name.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#54

Post by ncarroll »

DominikR wrote: post #32

I am going to get a lot of downvotes for this but I am still curious to hear what solutions the HN community could come up with for the problem Facebook is facing: Some of the accounts have been hacked. You locked the accounts as a security measure. Now you need to validate that some person is the actual owner of the account. How would you solve this problem? (Sending a code via text message to the owners mobile devi…

FB has great face recognition software and multiple tagged photos of pretty much everyone who has an FB account. Show 20 photos (or 42 or however many you need to get the chances of a lucky guess small enough) and let me - click on me. Give me 2 chances and if I'm wrong both times give a link for a quick video chat with a FB rep for ID purposes.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#55

Post by algorias »

brador wrote: post #52
algorias wrote: post #2

With each passing day, I look less and less like a lunatic for avoiding facebook (and its ilk) like the plague. You should try it.

Google will do the same thing soon. It wants one google account per person, and using real ID is the best way to do that.

Yeah, they have become very persistent in wanting you to link your google and youtube accounts, for instance. For the first time ever, I'm seriously considering ditching gmail.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#56

Post by darklajid »

cmdkeen wrote: post #39
Tarang wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think would happen if we just submitted fake data. Back before facebook went gigantic people used social networks with avatar like display pics & put up loads of fake data.

You'd no doubt be committing all sorts of criminal offences in both the US and whatever (Western) country you send them from. It makes for a much better reason for getting the authorities involved in a hacked account than just the initial hack. It's also much less likely that someone will do it due to the hassle and lack of automation. Though no doubt some hot startup idea is about to be born...

Committing a crime by doing what? Providing a utility bill that isn't legit/shows your name instead of mine? Providing a fake 'yearbook'? A 'bus card' to hijack an account?

Obviously hijacking an account is illegal, but the means to do it probably aren't: A good number of these 'proves' aren't special, aren't protected documents as far as I can tell. There's nothing illegal about 'forging' a yearbook page.

I'd say these measures are providing nothing but decent ways to hijack an account and have zero legitimate uses as means to identify myself to a random web application.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#57

Post by FridayWithJohn »

DominikR wrote: post #32

I am going to get a lot of downvotes for this but I am still curious to hear what solutions the HN community could come up with for the problem Facebook is facing: Some of the accounts have been hacked. You locked the accounts as a security measure. Now you need to validate that some person is the actual owner of the account. How would you solve this problem? (Sending a code via text message to the owners mobile devi…

@DominikR, actually your question should not be downvoted at all as it looks like you genuinely want to know how you could solve this security problem.

First off, it is important to know that all IT systems have a scale from "weak" to "strong" in security terms. There is no 100% hacker IT proof system. Generally the more secure a system is the more of a hassle it is to use. Seeing as FB has just been accused by Snowden of handing over mass data it has on various users to the NSA, it would be very foolish for them to ask for this sort of very private data especially at this time (when a lot of people don't trust FB)

As for your question, here are some of the security workarounds FB could do instead of asking for a freaking ID (which by the way can easily be forged)

- Don't lock the account, rather suspend it for just a few days telling the user that he should reset his password

- Get a friend (that has been a friend on Facebook for ages, not just a few days) to authenticate the real user (for this to happen it is assumed he must actually contact his friend without using FB as his account is blocked.)

- A simple unique "reset your account password" URL sent to your e-mail address.

- OTP sent to your phone

Those are just some ideas I thought of in a few minutes. I'm sure there are a whole host more.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#59

Post by schukin »

cmdkeen wrote: post #39
Tarang wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think would happen if we just submitted fake data. Back before facebook went gigantic people used social networks with avatar like display pics & put up loads of fake data.

You'd no doubt be committing all sorts of criminal offences in both the US and whatever (Western) country you send them from. It makes for a much better reason for getting the authorities involved in a hacked account than just the initial hack. It's also much less likely that someone will do it due to the hassle and lack of automation. Though no doubt some hot startup idea is about to be born...

How is photoshopping a bank statement/utility bill for the sole purpose of activating a Facebook account a "criminal offense"?

The same question somewhat applies to government-issued IDs depending on state/country, since many laws regarding falsified IDs only apply to purchasing tobacco/alcohol.

Re: Fury at Facebook as login requests “Government ID”

#60

Post by gailees »

frio wrote: post #42
algorias wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For younger generations who grew up with this kind of tech, it's just not conceivable. For them, Facebook is a synonym for having contact with their friends. In a discussion we once had in class, I mentioned that an option that hadn't been listed besides Facebook, Google+, Diaspora, etc was "none of the above". I got bewildered stares of disbelief in return.

Maybe. This is rapidly becoming less true. I had to give a talk at a school the other day ("tech is cool, join the tech industry!") and the bulk of the students didn't have Facebook accounts -- because their parents are on it. Maybe that'll change when they reach a University age, but it was striking how few of them used it.

Instagram is taking over amongst young people.
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