\u201cThe personal data processed by this X subcontractor includes data of a sovereign nature. An identity document is a sensitive document. This raises a number of questions\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
In late May, online influencers who produce revenue-generating content on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, received notifications that they will have to pass identity verification checks by July 1. Those checks require users to take a selfie and a photograph of a government-issued ID. Failure to do this will mean they will no longer continue receiving income from the platform. According to some sources, content producers that have not yet provided the requested photos are already being locked out of their accounts.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a screenshot of the automated message sent to users with creator subscriptions and ads revenue share programs, courtesy of the user known as Censored Men:<\/p>\n
![\"Imagen\"\/](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/GO3lLnOXAAAefiS?format=jpg&name=medium\")
Naturally, many users are up in arms about this new condition, particularly those with liberal (in the classic sense) sensibilities. After all, Elon Musk himself posted a tweet in July 2023 stating that his X platform would protect anonymous users, or \u201canons\u201d as he called them.<\/p>\n
This platform will protect anons for this reason particularly<\/p>\n
\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2023<\/p>\n
There is a very important lesson in all this \u2014 one that Yves flagged up in her 2021 post, If Your Business Depends on a Platform, You Don\u2019t Have a Business:<\/p>\n
[I]t\u2019s all well and good to want to be the creative person and not be bogged down with having to deal with the business side of publishing (and trust me, I do not like administrativa). However,\u00a0when you choose to hand off the tech and monetization activities to the suits, you are at their mercy.<\/p>\n
Sensitive and \u201cSovereign\u201d Data<\/p>\n
Users\u2019 concerns on Twitter\/X were further magnified when they learnt that the company that would be handling the face biometrics matching is AU10TIX, an Israeli firm with deep ties to the country\u2019s intelligence agencies. It is also a big global player in the fast-emerging digital identity industry. In a 2023 article, the company identified lack of public awareness and trust and concerns about security and privacy as major obstacles to the mass roll out of digital IDs. In response, the article said, \u201cgovernments and organizations must prioritize educating the public about the benefits, security measures, and safeguards associated with digital identities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udd12Are digital IDs the ultimate game-changer for global identification? \ud83d\udd12 Join the discussion on the current usage, challenges hindering adoption, and the promising future of #DigitalIDs. Read the full article here \u27a1\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/lq3Shn2O6R<\/p>\n
\u2014 AU10TIX (@AU10TIXLimited) July 23, 2023<\/p>\n
In other words, not only will X\u2019s premium users have to give up their biometric details and a government-issued ID number in order to be able to continue generating an income stream on the platform, the company to which they will be entrusting that sensitive data is deeply embedded within Israel\u2019s intelligence security complex. This is particularly worrisome for users living in Arabic countries with strained relations with Israel, reports the Lebanese newspaper L\u2019Orient Today:<\/p>\n
The problem is that AU10TIX, the company chosen to process users\u2019 personal data, is based just outside Tel Aviv. This could complicate access to account verification for citizens of Arab countries that have not normalized their relations with Israel. Notably, many services with close links to Israel are banned in Lebanon, as there is no peace agreement between the two countries.<\/p>\n
For Hadi Khoury, an IT expert, the concern is understandable. \u201cThe personal data processed by this X subcontractor includes data of a sovereign nature. An identity document is a sensitive document. This raises a number of questions: is this company capable of keeping personal data secure? Is it aware of its responsibilities and its duty to notify in the event of a data leak?\u201d<\/p>\n
The X platform\u2019s intentions to impose biometric verification were already evident in August last year. App researcher Nima Owji revealed that the social media platform was working on a new selfie biometrics and ID document verification process. Owji noted via screenshots that the new identity verification process would require users to take a selfie and photograph a government-issued ID. Days later, Twitter disclosed that it had added two new sections to its data collection privacy policy. Per CNN:<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes,\u201d the policy read.<\/p>\n
In addition, under a new section labeled \u201cjob applications,\u201d X said it may collect users\u2019 employment and educational history.<\/p>\n
The company also said it could collect \u201cemployment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on\u201d in order to suggest potential job openings to users, to share that information with prospective third-party employers or to further target users with advertising.<\/p>\n
For X Premium users, the company will give an option to provide a government ID and a selfie image for verification purposes. The company may extract biometric data from both the government ID and the selfie image for matching purposes, the company told CNN in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will additionally helps us tie, for those that choose, an account to a real person by processing their Government issued ID,\u201d according to the company.<\/p>\n
Note the use of the word \u201cchoose\u201d, as if the platform\u2019s premium users will have any real choice in the matter. If they want to remain a premium user and continue making money through the platform, they must, as things currently stand, submit the data requested \u2014 in return for what Tech Crunch\u00a0described last August as \u201calmost no benefits.\u201d\u00a0The company insists that the verification feature will be applicable only to Premium users with creator subscriptions and ads revenue share programs, and an optional extra for all other Twitter users.<\/p>\n
That, as I will explain a little later, is unlikely. But first\u2026<\/p>\n
Who or What Is Au10tix?<\/p>\n
AU10TIX is an identity verification and risk management company that began life in 2002 as the technological division of Dutch-based parent company ICTS International CV. This is where things start getting \u201cspooky\u201d. ICTS was founded in 1982 by former members of the Shin Bet, Israel\u2019s internal security agency, and airline security agents of El Al, Israel\u2019s flagship airline. It develops products and provides consulting and personnel services in the field of aviation and general security. According to Wikipedia, that includes \u201coperating airport checkpoints and electronic equipment, such as x-ray screening devices\u201d, and \u201cverifying travel documents.\u201d<\/p>\n
AU10TIX\u2019s product suite includes an Identity Verification Suite, Serial Fraud Monitor and Reusable Digital ID, as well as the AU10TIX Platform, a hub unifying the company\u2019s backend technology and frontend interfaces. Its clients include some of the biggest technology companies in the world, including Google, Uber, Airbnb, PayPal, LinkedIn, and Fiverr. X has been using its services for almost four years, well before Musk bought the platform, and is one of its ten largest clients.<\/p>\n
AU10TIX also recently teamed up with Thomson Reuters, the self-described \u201cworld\u2019s largest international multimedia news provider,\u201d to provide its customers with what they call \u201cidentity verification at every level,\u201d which includes \u201cend-to-end identity verification, authentication, and fraud prevention services.\u201d For customers looking for an an additional level of security, AU10TIX DOUBLECHECK \u201coffers manual reviews by their trained personnel in sensitive situations and for verifying unclassified documents.\u201d<\/p>\n
AU10TIX enables its customers to verify the identity of their users by rapidly checking their ID card or driver\u2019s license. And uploading the data couldn\u2019t be quicker, simpler or more painless for users, as the Israeli media giant Globes soothingly reports: \u201cAll the user needs to do is scan the certificate with the phone and speak for a few seconds in front of the camera \u2013 and the verification process is complete in up to eight seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s what happens to the data afterwards that worries some Twitter users. Though AU10TIX insists that it \u201cis committed to every international standard on protecting privacy and does not pass on details to any third party,\u201d not everyone is convinced.<\/p>\n
Why is X forcing us to send our biometric and government id data to an Israeli company?<\/p>\n
Monetization => ID verification => Israel (Au10tix)? <\/p>\n
Including selfie! pic.twitter.com\/QbOLBovk82<\/p>\n
\u2014 S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) May 25, 2024<\/p>\n
Yeah. An Israeli cyber intelligence company founded by at least one ex shin bet dude. Their whole business model is collecting everyone\u2019s personal information and biometrics and airport scans and shit. Not sketchy at all\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2014 Ian Carroll (@Cancelcloco) May 31, 2024<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Industrial Industrial Complex<\/p>\n
The paranoia is probably warranted given: a) the sensitivity of the data being requested; b) the terms and conditions on offer (see highlighted small print above); and c) the deep connections between AU10TIX\u2019s parent company (already mentioned), AU10TIX\u2019s senior executives and Israel\u2019s intelligence industrial complex. From the Lebanese newspaper L\u2019Orient de Jour (English version):<\/p>\n
Ron Atzmon, the founder of AU10TIX, spent his military service with the Shin Bet\u2019s notorious unit 8200. With a staff numbering between 5,000 and 10,000, this unit is Israel\u2019s main intelligence strike force, providing it with \u201c90 percent of its intelligence material,\u201d Yair Cohen, who headed the unit for five years, told Forbes.<\/p>\n
More than a mere military unit, 8200 serves as an incubator for Israel\u2019s tech industry, which accounts for 14 percent of the country\u2019s jobs and nearly 20 percent of its GDP. Waze, Wix, Viber and NSO, which produced the infamous Pegasus spyware, have one thing in common: their founders include former members of the unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is the porosity between the Israeli tech and the defense world,\u201d said [Hadi Khoury, an IT expert]. Israel has reached this level of technological sophistication thanks to this porosity and the financial support that links defense to technology start-ups. It\u2019s part of their defense strategy in order to build supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israeli media are denying the allegations that Atzman or AU10TIX\u2019s current CEO, Dan Yerushalmi, have connections with unit 8200. According to the Globes article, Atzmon is an Israel Navy veteran, while Yerushalmi was an adjutant in the IDF Communications Corps. In a 2018 article, the Times of Israel claimed that \u201conly six of the 35 companies [in Israel\u2019s cyber security industry] had founders from the fabled Unit 8200, the Israeli equivalent of the NSA\u201d. But it didn\u2019t say which ones.<\/p>\n
What is beyond doubt are the strong ties Yerushalmi has with Check Point Software Technologies (CPST), Israel\u2019s fourth largest company, having previously served as its Risk Officer and Chief Customer Officer. CPST is a Tel Aviv-based US-Israeli cybersecurity company whose customers include governments and large corporations, including some of Israel\u2019s biggest arms companies. Both the founder of CPST, Gil Shwed, and its vice president, Dorit Dor, served in Unit 8200.<\/p>\n
One Thing We Can Count On: Mission Creep\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for the X\/Twitter users whose livelihood, or part of it, depends on X\/Twitter, they now face a stark choice: hand over data of a highly sensitive nature to AU10TIX or risk losing a chunk of their daily bread. Presumably, most of them will choose the former \u2014 after all, what is potentially at stake is not just money but also all the hordes of followers they have built up over the years, and followers = influence. Next, the same stark choice will be presented to blue-tick subscribers who do not have creator subscriptions or ads revenue share programs. And then lastly, everyone else.<\/p>\n
Mission creep is one of the few guarantees of these digital identity initiatives. We\u2019ve already seen this play out with the vaccine passports that were initially marketed as purely optional but quickly became necessary for just about everything, from being able to travel to accessing basic public services and places, to even holding onto your job. We will soon see the same occur with the digital identity wallet programs rapidly rolling out across the West (and just about everywhere else) as well as with online platforms. If you want to use social media platforms in the future, even as they rapidly degrade, you will have to give up your biometrics, ID number and any other personal data they request.<\/p>\n
With regard to Twitter\/X, we know this to be true because Elon Musk\u2019s himself has already said as much \u2014 at the 2023 edition of the World Government Summit, just months after completing his purchase of Twitter:<\/p>\n
I have this long-term ambition. It\u2019s something called X.com from way back in the day which is kind of like an everything app. It is maximally useful. It does payments, it provides financial services, it provides information flow, really anything digital\u2026 It also provides secure communications, you know, be as useful as possible, as entertaining as possible, and also to be a source of truth.<\/p>\n
To find out what is going on, what is really go on, you should be able to go on X and find out. So, it is a source of truth and a maximally useful\u2026 system. And Twitter is essentially an accelerant to that maximally useful \u201ceverything\u201d app\u2026<\/p>\n
I think trying to have as many organisations and people\u2026 verified as being those organisations and people is important. And to have the organisational affiliation clearly identified so that if you want to find out if\u2026 an account is actually from a member of parliament or journalist or if, let\u2019s say, a Twitter handle actually belongs to the Disney corporation or something like that, you can go on Twitter and it\u2019s sort like an identity layer of the Internet. You can confirm that that is actually the case. Once you\u2019ve got these interlocking identities, it\u2019s very hard to be deceptive.<\/p>\n
But \u201cdeceptive\u201d is precisely the adjective one might use to describe Elon Musk\u2019s behaviour since taking over Twitter. He has duped millions of Twitter users into thinking of him as a champion of freedom of speech, as well as other equally important freedoms and rights, yet what he really wants is to create his own \u201csuper app\u201d that will give him access to unprecedented volumes of user data.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s plans have drawn inevitable comparisons, including from Musk himself, with the We Chat super app in China, which has a staggering 1.3 billion monthly users and can be used for a myriad of daily activities, from reading the news to chatting with friends, to hailing rides, to paying bills and taxes. But as Tech Crunch noted in 2022, while \u201ca super app might bring convenience to users as they hardly need to leave the platform \u2014 which in turn helps drive revenues for the company \u2014 \u2026the model can stifle competition and rule out user choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s plans for X are likely to be unattainable anyway, largely due to the fierce competition he would face from other tech giants that \u201calready have a stronghold in their sectors and control over user data.\u201d\u00a0Meanwhile, a backlash of sorts has begun brewing on the platform Musk wants to use as an accelerant for his \u201ceverything\u201d app, particularly among libertarian users for whom Musk is \u2014 or at least was until recently \u2014 a hero. After days of silence, the tech mogul finally tweeted: \u201cI will investigate this.\u201d<\/p>\n
This response \u2014 whether genuine or not \u2014 appears to have set off jitters in Israel. The Israeli tech news site Calcalistech warns that Musk\u2019s refusal to reject outright the allegations against AU10TIX \u201conly strengthens them and raises the fear that Musk will act to satisfy the anti-Israel users and stop the engagement with AU10TIX.\u201d Such an outcome could have \u201cdevastating potential not only for the company but for all Israeli companies that deal with cyber protection and information security issues, as it will make them all suspicious and may ignite an extensive campaign to stop contracting with them on the part of large technology companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
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