What are your thoughts about "giving out" your personal information for on-line services?
I recently had to do it... I "gave away" my ID and a scan of my fucking face.
Mercado Libre held my 10+ year account hostage until I did it, for years (since 2021-2022) I was hesitant, but ultimately gave up.
Mercado Libre is an online store that, if I'm not mistaken has it's origins in Argentina, eventually got popular and it became what it is nowadays. Recently, I think around 2019 or so, they began to function as a bank (Mercado Pago) and they offer free debit cards for registered members with no fees and honestly? the benefits from saving money to and buying with the card are too good. For instance, I recently purchased an 8BitDo for $500 MXN, when a regular user would pay $1500 if not more for one. On top of that, I have free shipping in, I'd say 80% of the total items in the store, including overseas shipping... not kidding!
By law, in México, all Banks that offers such services (accounts) requires ID + Face scans, so I guess it's understandable.
This year, exactly in January 9th, my governement has declared that by law, every single owner of a mobile phone line has to register voluntarily to a government platform with all your data (including not only ID and real physical address but also biometrics) OR your phone line will be unactive until you register it. The platform got hacked within 24 hours (actually less) and millions of people that already registered their phone lines the same January 9th, by January 10th 12:01am they got compromised. By the 12th, people on the streets where already selling SIM chips "that didn't had to be registered" because these scammers used the leaked data of millions to register up to 10 different lines and sold them as is.
I personally, haven't done it, supposedly there's a limit to do so, which is June 29th 2026, by June 30th, all those who didn't registered their SIM, will have their lines inactive for general use.
What I've recently done is to detach all my accounts out of my phone and began to use 2 Factor Authentication + Google Authenticator + Removal of my Phone Line as Log-In option for all my accounts... but man... if this law of voluntarily obligation of registering your phone line to your ID, Address and Biometrics doesn't get taken down by June 29th, I just... I guess I'll just do it...
What are your thoughts about this? Not obviously to my case, but to the ever growing need of "ID + Biometrics" scans in order to keep your services funtioning as normal?
What is, in your opinion a good way to counter-measure these user obligations?
Would you personally do it?
Personally?... sure, I can obviously see the risks, but for things like bank accounts I think it's a safer measure, because in order to do any movement in your account, you're required to scan your biometrics for confirmation (such as your Face or your Digital Print via Phone's Finger Scanner) so I guess it's not too bad... BUT for other things where you have to safeguard your personal services, such as your personal phone number?... dear p1ng... just... no thank you.
I also believe, none of these would've happened if people simply didn't started normalizing things like 2 Factor Authentication... but that's just me.
I recently had to do it... I "gave away" my ID and a scan of my fucking face.
Mercado Libre held my 10+ year account hostage until I did it, for years (since 2021-2022) I was hesitant, but ultimately gave up.
Mercado Libre is an online store that, if I'm not mistaken has it's origins in Argentina, eventually got popular and it became what it is nowadays. Recently, I think around 2019 or so, they began to function as a bank (Mercado Pago) and they offer free debit cards for registered members with no fees and honestly? the benefits from saving money to and buying with the card are too good. For instance, I recently purchased an 8BitDo for $500 MXN, when a regular user would pay $1500 if not more for one. On top of that, I have free shipping in, I'd say 80% of the total items in the store, including overseas shipping... not kidding!
By law, in México, all Banks that offers such services (accounts) requires ID + Face scans, so I guess it's understandable.
This year, exactly in January 9th, my governement has declared that by law, every single owner of a mobile phone line has to register voluntarily to a government platform with all your data (including not only ID and real physical address but also biometrics) OR your phone line will be unactive until you register it. The platform got hacked within 24 hours (actually less) and millions of people that already registered their phone lines the same January 9th, by January 10th 12:01am they got compromised. By the 12th, people on the streets where already selling SIM chips "that didn't had to be registered" because these scammers used the leaked data of millions to register up to 10 different lines and sold them as is.
I personally, haven't done it, supposedly there's a limit to do so, which is June 29th 2026, by June 30th, all those who didn't registered their SIM, will have their lines inactive for general use.
What I've recently done is to detach all my accounts out of my phone and began to use 2 Factor Authentication + Google Authenticator + Removal of my Phone Line as Log-In option for all my accounts... but man... if this law of voluntarily obligation of registering your phone line to your ID, Address and Biometrics doesn't get taken down by June 29th, I just... I guess I'll just do it...
What are your thoughts about this? Not obviously to my case, but to the ever growing need of "ID + Biometrics" scans in order to keep your services funtioning as normal?
What is, in your opinion a good way to counter-measure these user obligations?
Would you personally do it?
Personally?... sure, I can obviously see the risks, but for things like bank accounts I think it's a safer measure, because in order to do any movement in your account, you're required to scan your biometrics for confirmation (such as your Face or your Digital Print via Phone's Finger Scanner) so I guess it's not too bad... BUT for other things where you have to safeguard your personal services, such as your personal phone number?... dear p1ng... just... no thank you.
I also believe, none of these would've happened if people simply didn't started normalizing things like 2 Factor Authentication... but that's just me.
→ "Think of the children!"
