Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!ox.com!oxtrap!mudos!mju
From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs
Subject: Re: User Verification
Message-ID: <59.25B39568@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us>
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 90 15:51:42 EST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:120/129 - Starship Enterprise, Ann Arbor MI

In article <1990Jan14.142945.4419@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>, powers@shumv1.uucp (Stacy Powers) writes:
 >   I have heard that some sysops require some users to supply their 
 >driver's license number and that there are services the sysop can 
 >subscribe to that will look up the driver's license number for the 
 >sysop.

What if you don't have a driver's license?  Not necessarily under
16/17/18/whatever, but just don't choose to drive?  What if you *are*
under the driving age?  Does that automatically make you a second-class
user?  What if the person is from out-of-state?

What if I don't feel comfortable giving you my driver's license number,
and all the information it entails?  I can understand real name,
mailing address, phone number, etc. -- Even age or occupation.  But
why should I tell you what kind of car I drive?  Or how many tickets
I've had?  Or my social security number?  Or what color my hair,
eyes, etc. are?

I would suspect that a service whose purpose is to look up a driver's
license number and report back the information to the person making
the request is either illegal (in some states), or should be.  The
information I give the state is for their use only; selling it to
a third party without my consent and/or knowledge is not only pretty
slimey, but it's an invasion of privacy.

 >But because I find that people whose identities are known and verified
 >have a much higher "signal to noise" ratio in their postings. When 
 >people are allowed to post anonymously or in cognito, they tend to be 
 >much more irresponsible. 

I don't think so.  There are some people on a local conferencing system
here (M-Net, for those who care) that I would consider very irresponsible,
posting personal attacks, flames, and lawsuit threats almost every time
they sign on.  But everybody on the system knows who they are, and
some even know where they live or their home phone.

Verifying a user's identity doesn't discourage them from doing "bad"
things if they know they won't be caught, or if they're caught, they'll
just be let off the hook.  The primary reason that the people
described in the above paragraph do what they do is, I think, the fact
that the administration never does anything about it.

--  
Marc Unangst                          | "The only limit to our realization of
Internet: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us   | tomorrow will be our doubts of today."
UUCP    : ...!uunet!sharkey!mudos!mju |      - Franklin D. Roosevelt
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