ALLi News Editor, Dan Holloway
A short but very important piece today. Amazon has just launched KDP identity verification for author publishers. I will refrain from speculation about motives, particularly around timing, and simply cite Amazon’s stated reasons.
It is interesting, though, that this comes as, for example, European Union legislation places greater emphasis on tech firms knowing who is using and, in particular, who is advertising on their platforms. I have reported before on concerns over the impact of such moves on the anonymity of pseudonymous and whistle-blowing authors who may be prohibited from advertising by rules requiring a “real identity” to be attached to adverts. I would like to think that it might be possible to join processes up to ensure verification requirements of such legislation could be met through steps like this while protecting pseudonymity, although that is not the purpose of the current move.
What I will do is paste below Amazon’s statement:
“KDP is committed to providing legitimate authors and publishers with a trustworthy, enjoyable publishing experience. In order to further protect that experience, we’re introducing Identity Verification for KDP. Beginning today, KDP authors and publishers may be prompted to submit a photo of their government-issued identification which we’ll match against their current account information. We take privacy seriously, and we handle personal information in accordance with Amazon’s Privacy Notice and delete all identity documents after the ID verification process is complete. Once the match is confirmed, authors and publishers will be able to proceed with using their KDP account.”
Highlights
You can read their FAQs, but the highlights are these:
Not everyone will be required to verify their identity immediately, though over time most will be.
Amazon says it takes privacy incredibly seriously and that all verification information will be deleted after the process is complete. So we should expect absolutely no data leaks at any point related to this information, and Amazon will be very keen to ensure internal compliance, having made this statement. I obviously welcome the privacy commitment.
Those contacted will be given a date by which to respond. They will also be able to pursue an appeal process (not everyone in every country has government-issued ID, of course). But ultimately, account suspension is possible.
The reason given for the move is to stymie bad actors. We know Amazon takes content stuffing, catfishing, click farming, and the like very seriously. This is the canvas they are painting the move on.
