Facebook asking locked out users to provide Government ID

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If you have opened Twitter today you may have noticed an increase in messages reporting that the social media site Facebook was asking them to provide a Government ID to unlock their account on the site.

The message that users received during log in to their Facebook account states the following: "For security reasons your account is temporarily locked. If this account reflects your real name and personal information, please help us verify it".

The user who has been temporarily locked out of the account is then asked to provide a government ID for verification.

Facebook itself has not published a public comment yet and it is unclear if the company will address the issue at all.

Facebook Government ID

Facebook's Help page provides further information about the practice:

If you can't verify your account using your mobile number, you'll need to provide a copy of your photo ID. This could be a scanned copy or a close-up photo you've taken.

Facebook government ID

Upload a photo ID

How to upload your ID

• Optional: Cover up any confidential information (ex: license or passport number)
• Scan or take a picture of your ID with your digital camera
• Make sure you can clearly see your name, birthday and photo
• Save the photo to your desktop
• Click the button below and follow the instructions to upload your ID

This is my government issued ID. I understand I won't get help with my account if I haven't uploaded a valid ID.

The very same page lists the types of IDs that Facebook accepts:

• Birth certificate
• Driver's license
• Passport
• Marriage certificate
• Official Name change paperwork
• Personal or vehicle insurance card
• Non-driver's government ID
• Green card, residence permit or immigration papers
• Social Security Card
• Voter ID Card

In addition, Facebook will also accept any of the two following items that must show the name and date of birth of the locked out Facebook user.

• Bank statement
• Bus card
• Check
• Credit Card
• Employment verification
• Library card
• Mail
• Magazine subscription stub
• Medical record
• Membership IDs
• Paycheck stub
• Permit
• School card
• School record
• Utility bill
• Yearbook photo

The company notes that data that has been uploaded to Facebook as part of the verification process will be deleted after the verification.

The mass lock-out of users is not the first on Facebook. The most recent lock-out that requested users to provide Facebook with IDs to unlock the account again happened in January of this year. The company back then stated that it may ask users for photo IDs depending on the violation that occurred.

Common violations where this may be the case are accounts where either the name or birth date do not match or exist at all (for instance if a nickname is being used), and maybe also at times to verify account ownership after a hacking attempt.

The only two options that locked out Facebook users have is to either comply with the request and transfer a picture of a photo ID to Facebook, or stop using the site altogether

Fix Google Chrome: Adobe Reader is not allowed when loading pdf documents

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If you are running the Google Chrome Canary web browser you may have stumbled upon a new inconvenience in the browser when you are trying to load pdf documents in it. Instead of displaying the contents of the document inline -- that is in the browser's tab -- you are presented with the information that "Adobe Reader is not allowed".

You are probably wondering what is up with that and why the message appears on your screen, when it worked fine the last time you opened a pdf document in the Chrome browser.

Well, Google changed the way the Adobe Reader plug-in is handled in the browser if you have disabled the integrated Chrome PDF Viewer that ships natively with the operating system.

The core reason for disabling the Chrome PDF Viewer in the browser is to use a different PDF reader in it instead. Adobe Reader is one of the plug-ins that can be used for that.

Chrome users won't receive the message if they have the PDF Viewer enabled, as it is then used to render the PDF document in Chrome.

You may also notice that you can only have one PDF plug-in enabled at a time. If you enable Chrome PDF Viewer, the Adobe Reader plug-in will get disabled automatically, and vice verse.

You have three options to fix the issue that you are experiencing:

Right-click on the page with the "Adobe Reader is not allowed" message and select Run this plug-in from the context menu. This loads the document for the time being, but will block it again on consecutive runs

Left-click on the red x icon in the browser's address bar and select "Always allow plug-ins on 'domain name'". This whitelists the domain name you are on, but will block the plug-in from running immediately on other sites.

The third and final option that you have is to load chrome://plugins in the browser, locate the Adobe Reader plug-in there on the page, and check the "Always allowed" box underneath it. This enables the plug-in on all websites so that PDF documents are again loaded automatically when you load them in the browser.

Background information: The reason for the change is Google's phasing out of all NPAPI plug-ins from 2014 on. What this means basically is that you will be able to use the Adobe Reader plugin until Google makes that policy change in 2014 in the Chrome browser. From that moment on, that plug-in, and all others that use NPAPI, won't work anymore in the browser.

What this means for users of the browser is that their only option to view PDF documents in Chrome will be Google's own PDF Viewer. There won't be another way unless extensions come along that integrate the functionality into the browser.

If you want to view PDFs in Adobe Reader or another PDF reader, you will need to download those to your system first before you can view them.

Google sign ins have become a tad more difficult for multi-account owners now

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Usually when you sign in to an Internet service or site like Gmail, you are asked to enter your username or password to do so. And if you have configured two-factor authentication, you may also be asked to provide the second code to complete the login process and access account data.

Google recently changed how you log in to its products, and if you happen to be a multi-account owner, not for the better. Multi-account in this regard means that you have access to multiple Google accounts that you switch between regularly.

The sign in form has changed significantly, with the most important change being that Google is now displaying your username (your email address usually) in the username field by default so that you cannot change it anymore.

The new Google sign in page

One account. All of Google.

Sign in to continue to Gmail.

Sign in with a different account

If you are just using that account, that is not that big of a change as you just have to type your password to sign in to the service.

The problems start when you want to use a different account to sign in. Say, you have a work and home account, or a friend wants to sign in, or you use multiple accounts to access different Google products. Whatever the reason, you may notice that the only way to go forward with signing in with a different Google account is to click on the "sign in with a different account" link underneath the login form.

If you now thought that Google is displaying a username and password field for your to log in to the selected Google service regularly, you are wrong.

Instead, you are taken to a "Choose an account" page where you can select from accounts that you have previously signed in with, or pick a new account by clicking on the add account link on that page.

Only when you click on the "Add account" link, you are taken to a page where you are allowed to enter an alternate email address and password that you want to sign in with.

Each account that you add this way is added to the list of accounts that you can switch between. So, whenever you want to change accounts, you need to perform the very same steps to do so. Instead of clicking on "add account" on the "choose an account" page, you may select an account that you have previously added. That too requires you to go through the process, so instead of being able to sign in with a different account directly, you need to click twice before you can do so.

Options

You have three options to change this behavior. While you cannot undo the new Google sign in page at all, you can:

1. Clear all Google related cookies whenever you want to switch accounts to clear the email field so that you can type in the email and password field on the Google sign in form.
2. Use a different web browser or a different browser profile to use multiple accounts without going through the process.
3. Use a browser extension that enables you to use different accounts by using separate sets of cookies for these accounts.

Closing Words

While Google is usual