There are several things about this that are terrifying to me.
As if Facebook doesn’t reign supremely enough in this day in age, it’s now the source of a new identity card, which Tobias Leingruber, a Mozilla worker, is hoping to establish in lieu of government issued IDs. Really? Seems like a long shot to me.
And, you know, I have some grievances. One, I don’t even entirely understand exactly how the cards work, and the FB Bureau — you heard me — doesn’t do the best job of explaining. What I did glean from the site, is that the IDs will be scannable and linked back to your Facebook page so that authorities will be able to verify that you are who you say you are by checking out your FB info. Well, border control, I’m not really Bolshevist, as my Facebook page says I am, so we’re going to have to an awkward conversation about my political affiliation. Just warning you.
The fact that Facebook has the potential to have as much or more clout than our government is just…so very off-putting. And like, what’s wrong with the run of the mill government-issued IDs? Are they too old fashioned for you? Are they too 2011? The internet itself is very powerful, and I’m sure it will continue to become more influential whether or not the FB ID is accepted or not. But the internet is such a far reaching place—to give it the authority to validate our existence doesn’t really sit right with me.
Maybe I’m being a stick in the mud, but when did Facebook get so serious? [via Buzzfeed, FB Bureau]
Would you Lovelies get (and use!) a Facebook identification card?
orchid / 242 posts
Can anyone say new fake IDs?
guest
To send a government official back to my Facebook profile to make sure it’s the real me? What? That’s the most insane sounding sentence I’ve heard all day.
guest
Yeeeeeaaaaah, because NOBODY ever creates fake facebook profiles…
guest
by the time they try to do this and make this official, facebook will be dead. everyone’s moving to twitter. this is so completely ridiculous.
sunflower / 332 posts
@Ians_Dad_451@xanga - I agree, this obviously won’t work because a lot of people in the world create fake profiles on facebook and every other social network. The fact that this is even worrying anyone is completely absurd! @clumsylittleheart@xanga - And I also agree that facebook is not the only social network on the internet, there are many like for example twitter and such. There’s no way someone’s going to stick around with facebook just because they have an ID from it. After all, trends are never static but always dynamic.
I think that our normal ID’s suffice…there’s no need to even consider this kind of thing.
guest
thats silly
guest
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore
guest
Yeah, because nobody can lie about things like age on their facebook.
guest
I have a myspace ID card….will that work in the future?
guest
lol, ridiculous
sunflower / 499 posts
LMAO wtf!???!
peony / 1 posts
scary for real. & i love the internet
still scary.
magnolia / 1055 posts
yeah… no
guest
LOL, the facebook folks are much more intelligent than our government officials, but nobody’s worried about those guys.
I’m pretty sure that this is not real.
guest
that screams hoax to me. Facebook knows that it would make most people delete their profiles and all fake profiles would dissapear. This means a few millions less users, and we know what THAT means regarding the fact that they earn money with advertisements.
If not, no of course I wouldn’t, what the hell.
guest
lol i like how you post this and sound so worried about it, then you go on to say YOU have a facebook page. if you don’t like it, delete it. its the best thing i ever did.
guest
This is silly.
@clumsylittleheart@xanga - I agree.
guest
Well this is rather pointless and no company can take the place of authentic Government Issued ID’s.
How about those people who are not part of Facebook? Will they be forced to have an account on the site, just to get one of these cards?
I hope this does not happen.
guest
I agree with the comments above…
This IS silly.
And I am also pretty sure it’s not real.
But it is a good way to generate media attention!
guest
Here’s my card, look me up some time.
guest
if they do that, then that is my signal to leave facebook
guest
While… the idea it could replace government ID’s is… ludicrous I like the card idea. But instead of them being hard plastic and so official being like a business card that scans to your profile with whatever information you want on the card itself. Would be useful to give to people you meet and want to talk to again but don’t feel comfortable giving your number to yet.
guest
What a stupid stupid stupid thing to do! Hackers, random people creating fake FB profiles..hello?! There is NO way they can ever verify if that FB profile is the real deal or not. No safe way anyways. I think that’s scary & extremely off-putting as you said. FB is just the new Myspace..that’s all it is. Sure it’s a bit more professional etc, but Myspace could have been that way too, it’s all up to how people wish to use it.
I dearly hope this never goes through.
guest
While this is stupid, the idea of IDs being scannable and linking to a database is a valid idea. But I wouldn’t use someone’s facebook page, where they can write anything in jest. I know a guy who says he is from Gotham City and lives in Metropolis on his facebook. His last name is even misspelled by a letter.
The only thing a facebook card would be useful for is if you meet someone and want to add one another on facebook with ease.
guest
I don’t like that. one bit.
guest
I believe in correctness. So yes!
guest
I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to happen.