IDV on KDP and other Acronyms - Debbie Bennett

So I’m browsing around on Facebook – as you do – looking for something more interesting than writing a blog post for this month. As usual, time has run away with me and somehow we are already at the start of a new month. And I come across this post: www.facebook.com/groups/20Booksto50k/posts/7481634218609644/ 

Now this is 20BooksTo50K® – a group dedicated to the business of self-publishing and I expect many of you have heard of it and/or are already members. Posts in this group are usually fact-checked, accurate and relevant. I say usually, because nothing is infallible and there’s no point encouraging people who just want to argue, and there are gazillions of other wannabe writers’ groups on Facebook that are probably not worth the screentime. 

Anyway, this post struck me as something of a watershed for indie writers using KDP. To summarise – it appears that Amazon is going down the route of Identity Verification. Like I said, I generally trust posts in this group and I have no reason to believe this is fake news. Starting soon, Amazon may (over time) ask KDP account holders for a photo of their ‘Government-issued identification’ which will be matched against their account details. 

How do people feel about this? Mixed views on Facebook. Amazon already has my banking details and my address. Given that I am also an Amazon customer and use the same account, Amazon knows my address is correct since it delivers (way too much) stuff to me! What, then, do I need to verify? Photographic ID would seem pointless since there is nothing to verify it against – that might work for US citizens who might have other accessible photographic ID online, but I don’t see it working for other countries. Amazon says it will delete the ID after verification is complete, but will it really? Is anything ever really deleted online? 

What about those who don’t have a driver’s license or a passport? Certainly in the UK, they seem to be the only acceptable visual ID these days. I didn’t have a photographic license until a few years ago and I only just renewed my passport. I did play devil’s advocate recently at a local election and said I only had a work ID – the fact that it was a police staff ID card may have helped … 

What about those people in countries that don’t subscribe to the West’s ideals of online security? I suspect the whole point of this exercise is to weed out fraudulent accounts, multiple accounts, accounts opened after their first account was terminated etc. Also the bot accounts opened to both positively and negatively review-bomb books and other goods. But what happens to the genuine authors from these countries? These authors may already have jumped through hoops to get internet access and a KDP account. They may well be paid through 3rd parties as Amazon doesn’t always accept bank accounts based in certain countries. There will be no US tax treaty and therefore they’ll be taxed at 30% in the US too. And now they may well have no way of proving who they are. 

So be prepared to prove your existence. And if you can’t or won’t, you may find your days on KDP are numbered. Can we ever be completely off-grid anymore?