Share your thoughts on identity related topics - chance to win £250! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The internet has provided us with many wonderful opportunities. We can discover and learn, meet potential partners, we can buy and sell things to other people, turn to peers for advice, book holidays, read our favourite magazines, manage our finances, and so on. Unfortunately the systems and tools we use to make our lives easier are easily misused by people with the wrong intentions. We read headlines of dating scams, online fraud, people creating fake profiles, and children accessing age restricted content.

We can use our phones to make payments from our bank accounts, but not prove who we are. We still have to photocopy and email our passports to prove our identities to get things done like rent a flat, which simply doesn’t make sense. The list goes on and on…

Mumsnet partner, Yoti, have created a secure ID app which helps people prove their identity, online and in person - and are on a mission to fix the identity related issues that aren't right and don’t make sense. If you’d like to read more about how they secure your data and plan to make proving your identity simpler, faster and safer, please visit www.yoti.com.

Yoti would like to hear your views on some identity related topics - have a look at them below - and if your answer is defined by aspects such as past experience, the age of your children or your work then please add that into your post. Of course, there's no right or wrong answers and all views are welcome.

Example Topics:

• Age restricted content is open to anyone online (for example anyone - whatever their age can access all sorts of content with no restrictions)
• Online personas can't be trusted (for example - it's easy to pose as someone older or younger when interacting with other people online)
• Cost of fraud is more than the NHS budget (£144bn more money is lost each year to online fraud in the UK than spent on the NHS)
• We need to show numerous paper documents (e.g. a utility bill and two different types of ID document) just to access a new service

Add your comment and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £250 John Lewis voucher

thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

I know there's much more fraud and fake identity around, but I do get frustrated with the amount of ID we need to produce. I recently got a statement through from an old ISA. It has the grand total of £5.63 in it, but it's in my maiden name. I have to go into the bank with two forms of ID & my marriage certificate to close it, or else I'll keep getting statements. Very annoying.

I think the use of the internet for so many things in this day and age has made the world a scary place if I am honest, when we were younger 'stranger danger' only applied to the scary bloke who might lurk outside your school or around the park, now that scary bloke (or woman) can hide their identity behind an online profile bearing no resemblance to them. I would never use online dating sites (heard way to many horror stories about people turning out to be odd/not who they say they are) and I am always telling my son to be careful on his xbox live account, not to accept unknown friend requests or answer any questions or comments of a personal nature, its hard because with that becomes restrictions on his software that often work against some of the games he wants to do but at the same time, its common knowledge that hackers/oddballs lurk on these sorts of platforms looking for victims or people they can troll/bully.

As part of my role I have to check identity, right to work, professional qualifications, DBS etc back to original documents and retain copies to prove the checks have been made. Not having support of your belief that someone has a right to work could result in a fine. Not sure how you get round this. It is surprising the number of people who have don't have the documentation to do this e.g. Photo card driving licence, passport or full birth certificate. Verification of identity as part of safeguarding is getting more and more stringent-quite rightly and I don't see how it can be done through an app.

Always err on the side of caution when thinking about revealing anything online!! I deleted my Facebook page long ago & I don't miss it at all.
Even my poor old Mum gets targeted by folk on Facebook pertaining to me potential suitors! The whole Romeo scam thing is utterly vile - but sadly so common & people are still falling for it. It's sad because the victims just want to believe the best of someone & that's why they are singled out - lonely & looking for love. The scammer spends hours, literally hours, spinning them line after line.. but it's only a matter of time before they ask for money.
I hear reminders every day at work, on the radio, on tv - not to click on email links you don't recognise, but people still do it. I've had them all! A missed parcel delivery, HMRC refund, an overseas lottery win (just let us know your bank details so you can claim your prize!).. you name it!
They do get smarter though - I had an email & text through with the same message about someone accessing my email - I was almost convinced as it came through to both at the same time - but thank Google I sussed it!

I think online is only a version of ones self. I am aware that online is only as safe as far as you trust the organisation you give your information to. I am aware for my kids that the most important thing is to be safe online. To that end, I use online sources, but I don't think I'd trust one organisation with all my data..

I'm not entirely convinced that entrusting a 3rd party online service with my personal details is the way to go, to be honest.

There's a massive problem with Facebook for example, people selling items and saying they will post but the buyer never receiving items, it's sad to see so many people fall for it and end up out of pocket, wish there was something we could do to stop it

I am fairly careful with the info I share on line, I try to only use secure websites when I buy things and I use Paypal so my payments should be protected.

I find it very hard to believe that a person is who they say they are, there is nothing to stop someone changing their sex or age, and using a picture taken from online or a relative or something. It was drummed in to me as a child and it's certainly stuck. I am now doing the same with DC and I hope I can get it to stick with them

I think more needs to be done to check ages, basically look at age restriction and work out birth year of a 13+/16+/18+ year old and use that. I've seen numerous children on Facebook before they were old enough (parents aware) and it will get to their birthday and Facebook tells me they are turning 18 when in fact they are 12/13 by then. That's a mild website which family members are more likely to be aware of, what other sites have they done that on? Age restrictions are there for a reason but if it's that easy and quick to get through them then they may as well be taken down

Proving my identity as a house-sharing (moving yearly) student was always tricky as I didn't have 2 utility bills or financial documents posted to that address.

I don't think people are very aware of how much of a paper trail they need to confirm their identity for work and everything else. As fraud is such an issue that is likely to stay in place. How will that work with this app? If I have a volunteer for my youth group turn up with online only identity, I can't currently accept them to work with our kids. There's no way our procedures will accept some random Internet company as surety. These are my friends' kids, I don't want to cut corners.

As someone else has already pointed out, the amount of identity proof needed must indeed make it difficult for some people to get established.
Also back in the day, you could disappear if you really wanted to and pop up somewhere else and eventually get taken on doing some kind of manual or cleaning work. Having known someone who just upped and left, it was very hard on the family left behind - but I suspect a great escape for that person who probably just needed a fresh start. (assuming they weren't abducted and murdered instead of running away)

As a professional I know the importance of validating identity though it can be a faff when you get sent to a call centre in the Philippines where the workers must use a form based system to prevent them from directly accessing your info. The amount of information you hand over is massive.

Dont trust anything online or on the phone

Any thing that helps us to stay safe in a very precarious internet world is welcome by me, fraud seems to be on the increase and it does worry me event though im fairly savvy !

I should probably worry about identity theft more than I currently do, but I'm more concerned with who my children talk to online. I speak to them about it all the time, about not being able to trust people as anyone can set up a fake account. It is a worry.

I think all of the above are concerning but I don;t think you would be able to permanently stop any of it everybody needs to be educated better and to double check things that we think are genuine

I am horrified how many different scams there are circling online. And also how social media has helped MLMs balloon as it is so easy for people to fake a successful lifestyle on social media.
I have a job in the public eye so have tried to lock down my Facebook profile and use a modified name on there.
I really worry about the risk posed by hackers and internet scammers

We are very cautious about anything we do financially online anymore. We have had our PayPal account hacked into twice which wasn't any fault of our own & we have got an electric shredding machine to shred any confidential paperwork or anything with our names & birthdates etc on.

I enter a lot of competitions online, but I never give my correct date of birth. I know this could invalidate my entry, but I would sooner lose out on potential prizes than put things like my bank account at risk.

I work in financial services and I see so many ways scammers try to obtain peoples details or trick them into making a payment. It pays to be clued up and the Action Fraud website is a great place to start!

I am very cynical about people and their online persona, however I know a lot of people would never question a person's story and would trust everyone they "meet" online blindly and get over-invested - emotionally and financially. I don't think it would be cost effective for companies to vet everyone who visits their site/uses their service (for example on a forum) and would mean having to give your personal data to far too many people.

I wonder if an app which holds such information would be a massive target for hackers and would question what protection I would have if it did?

I think you have to be cautious when online & use common sense. Think before you post! There are so many scams out there & fake people.

Online personas - trolls! Where did that even come from and how do we stop it!

I think this generation who are growing up using social media in such a big way could do with more education on this subject. My teen DD's are fast and loose with the information they post online and I feel like I am constantly having to remind them to be careful. We have already had to de-reg them from several platforms because they have posted inappropriate and identifying content and they are only 13 and 15.