Comment by dakiol
Comment by dakiol 11 hours ago
If only governments could provide a very simple “check identity” service online. I think this should be a basic service nowadays.
Comment by dakiol 11 hours ago
If only governments could provide a very simple “check identity” service online. I think this should be a basic service nowadays.
They provide, don't they? In Russia there are "gosuslugi" (government services) that banks and other organizations can use to confirm identity. However, if you sign up, then you will receive draft notices for military service through the app so you better not sign up.
I am not sure it would resolve the issue. About 10 or so years ago I was contacted on LinedIn with offer to "rent my name and face" for a team of Chinese remote workers (probably not those exact words). I rejected the offer without asking for details. Not sure if they were actually from China.
Isn't that what the E-Verify [1] system was supposed to be? Several companies are now discovering it's not all it's cracked up to be, as ICE shows up at their door.
We don't need a general identity service though. We need to know whether someone is authorized to work for a US employer, right? How can a DPRK worker have the necessary authorization? If they use someone else's identity, isn't that something e verify should catch? If these are US citizens/nationals/residents working out of DPRK, who cares?
I suspect some of the fake job postings are schemes to harvest that type of data. If I live in Atlanta and someone uses my identity to get a job in Seattle, how long will it take for me to learn about the company in Seattle that thinks it hired me, especially if they don't use my home address.
One of the many reasons I don't like to give references, social security number, date of birth, and so on to anyone except the end client hiring manager. I don't really care if the talent manager software has a required field to put last four of social security number. I simply don't trust random job postings to keep my information secure.
Would it help if I could query some IRS service to check what paychecks have been sent to me? Does this have a delay of a quarter year or more?
How do these people avoid getting the people they impersonated and or scammed in trouble with the IRS?
Yes. It confirms someone with a particular name, DOB, and SSN is authorized to work in the US. It doesn't confirm that the person claiming to be that person actually is that person. It relies on the employer to be able to match the applicant to the photo in e-verify, which isn't always an easy task.
> If only governments could provide a very simple “check identity” service online. I think this should be a basic service nowadays.
Slovenia issues personal certificates so you can identify yourself online. Mostly used for banking and e-gov. The commercial space has decided it’s too cumbersome.
Fantastic idea. Started rolling out when I was in college some 15 years ago. You go to the same place that issues your govt ID and you can also get the equivalent of an SSH cert issued by the government that guarantees you are you, your identity was verified at point of issuance, etc.
Unfortunately it’s about as fiddly to use as SSH. Okay for nerds, way cumbersome for normal humans who just want to log into their bank and pay their taxes damn it. Last I remember (moved to USA ~10 years ago) getting their e-signing browser widgets/extensions to work reliably on non-windows machines was hell. Most Mac/Linux users ran a whole VMWare VM just to do taxes once a year.