Identity Verification Comes to Second Life...

Well its been Morphed from 'Age verification' to the now 'Identity verification' WHY? Good question!
Lindens answer:
The IDV system aims to deliver two things. First, for Residents, it gives them the chance to independently verify certain aspects of their identity (their name, age, location and sex for instance) if they choose to. This will help establish trust by removing a layer of anonymity for those they interact with. It’s much easier to trust someone who puts their name behind their words and actions.
The second benefit of the IDV system is to help land owners and content publishers be sure that minors do not get access to inappropriate material. Again this is voluntary, but we wanted to provide the tools for estate owners to restrict access to content of a sexual or violent nature to those they are sure are over 18. They’ll do this by flagging the content as ‘Restricted’ which will only allow avatars verified as over 18 to access the land. Visitors to Restricted areas can also be reassured that all other visitors are over 18 as well.
Read the full statement here

Even with a half hearted attempt at clearing up some of the questions their statement raises more questions than it answers:

1, What has a persons sex got to do with AGE or whether they can access mature areas? Why would you need to know this?
2, LL have stated “ID verification will only be required at this time for access to restricted content”. Does this mean all areas will eventually be labelled depending on content?
3, LL have stated "ID verification provides an additional layer of trust" Does that mean I am untrustworthy if I chose NOT to verify?
4, LL have stated "Information provided during the identification process, such as a driver’s license, passport or national ID card number, will simply be used to cross-check against public records. Linden Lab will not be storing this data and nor will the third party verification specialist, Aristotle."
Linden Lab does not share Resident data for marketing or other purposes, but does of course comply with requests from all governmental and regulatory authorities and with court orders including subpoenas.
Notice the word 'store' no-where does it state that this information will NOT be passed on.

In answer to two of the questions raised on the blog Robin Linden answered:
The mention of gender was an example, and should that option become available it would be purely voluntary.
Integrity is contractually obligated to perform the matching service and that’s it. They will not store any personally identifying information, nor will we.
Linden Labs are at pains to point out that this is all completely voluntary at the moment, just when exactly does it stop becoming voluntary and become compulsory? Will we still be able to download updates and bug fixes if we do not verify?

I hope I have covered some of the questions raised by this issue here, but there are many more.
Feel free to leave your questions or answers in the comments.

Dana XxX