KDP identity verification is starting

[Lynn]

https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Identity-Verification-for-KDP?language=en_US&forum=KDP%20Forum#top

KDP is committed to providing legitimate authors and publishers with a trustworthy, enjoyable publishing experience. In order to further protect that experience, we’re introducing Identity Verification for KDP. Beginning today, KDP authors and publishers may be prompted to submit a photo of their government-issued identification which we’ll match against their current account information. We take privacy seriously, and we handle personal information in accordance with Amazon’s Privacy Notice and delete all identity documents after the ID verification process is complete. Once the match is confirmed, authors and publishers will be able to proceed with using their KDP account.

Also, Matthew pointed out the help page for the ID verification, so I've added a link to it.
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GH7TYHP6FR9QAUM9

[djmills]

Thanks. Very interesting.
As per usual, punish the honest authors to try and stop the bad actors. :-)
I guess it will be an AI program that does the verification process. And no guarantee the private information will be deleted permanently from Amazon hard drives.
I am so glad I left Amazon and use D2D (and Smashwords) to get my books on Amazon and all the other sites. So much easier to manage.
Now I can sit back and watch the "bad actors" try to use stolen IDs to set up their accounts.

[TimothyEllis]

That sounds like the latest initiative to keep out banned authors and spammers.

There is nothing in the quote which says they will be asking everyone for it, just "may be prompted".

That suggests to me that when suspicious activity is going on, they want proof that the person is who they say they are.

It also suggests that identity theft has become an issue somehow.

[Matthew]

I do have the new identity page but it's not asking for me to upload my ID anywhere. I wonder if they plan to roll it out to all authors, or just the suspicious ones like Tim says.

Hopefully this makes a dent in the scammers and spammers, though the cynic in me wonders how easy it is to fool them with a fake or photoshopped ID.

[TimothyEllis]

Where is the identity page?

[Matthew]

Where is the identity page?

If you login and click "Your Account" it should be a tab on the Account page, called "Your Identity." The direct link for me is: https://account.kdp.amazon.com/identity

I suspect the upload ID section will happen after clicking "Save and Continue," however for me, this simply takes me back to the account tab.

In case it's not rolled out to all countries, this is what it looks like:

[Matthew]

Also, by the way, here's a KDP help article rather than just the community post (which is linked from the identity page): https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GH7TYHP6FR9QAUM9

[Bill Hiatt]

If the system works properly, it may reduce the impact of some kinds of scams. We'll have to wait and see.