Prove it

Proving who you are can be quite difficult. Other than looking in the mirror and saying that’s me, there aren’t that many options. All of us carry many forms of ID with us, bank and credit cards etc,  but they are not always that effective, or so I found out. It seems that all documentation can be forged, identities stolen and businesses go to great lengths to put fool proof mechanisms in place to prove that you are who you are meant to be.

So it is with YouTube. I’d created a video of a presentation I had given and wanted to put a link to an application form in the accompanying blurb. It was all good to this point. YouTube would not accept the link unless I was verified. No problem and I dived into the Google verification process. I filled in a few details, took a photo and waited. Apparently the process could take up to 48 hours.

I didn’t have to wait that long only to be told:

Your ID verification was unsuccessful. You have one more opportunity to try again now to get access to advanced YouTube features. If you try again, make sure that your ID:

• Clearly shows your date of birth (it did)
• Is a driving licence, passport or other valid ID (It was)
• Is current (it is)
• Doesn’t show any private info that must be covered (hmmm, define private).

I’m now left wondering if the failure was because I still have an old paper driving licence, which I used, or because I showed my address. Unfortunately I wasn’t told which has left me in a dilemma. I can’t test one hypothesis or the other as I only have one chance left.

Despite running three businesses through my Google accounts and paying for their services for many years, it seems that I can’t be trusted to be who I am.

I’m all for protecting my identity and so, until I can find a better approach, I’ll not be putting hyperlinks in my YouTube description. It’s a minor inconvenience but I’ll get over it.