Academic Experts Demanding Pictures of Writers

Every low season the people at academic experts start doing activities, which simply seem like means to keep busy. But this is by far the most ridiculous demand: "You will need to take a clear picture of yourself holding your personal ID. Applications with low resolution or without a picture will not be reviewed." Is something wrong with this people? Are they forgetting the industry they are in?

What's your concern, exactly? I suppose it's one thing if you thought they might be publicly posting your picture with your ID; but it's just for their internal use, right? In this country, they need our Social Security #s and they're the most sensitive personal ID info we have.

I understand that in Europe (and maybe in other countries), working in this industry might be frowned upon by other employers; but in this country, nobody really even cares. The most common reaction from people who find out what I do for a living is they're slightly impressed that anybody can actually write well enough on such a wide range of subjects to make a living at it. I didn't even hide it when I applied for my job writing for the U.S. government, and it was for the office of a federal inspector general. When it came up in my interview, the only questions from them had to do with my versatility as a writer and my experience with high-pressure deadlines and fast turnaround time. It couldn't have bothered them very much, because they hired me and there were over 400 applicants for the position, the vast majority of whom came from much more traditional previous occupations and vocational histories.

Brownie Corp is British not American. That's what they state??!!!?? At least acadexpts is for sure. If they are American, as you seem to state, then that proves my point.

I know absolutely nothing about that company and I didn't "state" anything about where they're located. I simply asked what your concern is about the issue you raised to start this thread topic.

I don't want to send images to people that I don't actually know! Isn't the fact that they have an id enough??

I don't know. It doesn't really seem like that big a deal to me if it's just for their internal use. Does your sensitivity about this have anything to do with your choice of forum User Name?

One never knows how they're going to use it, so the risk is always there. Maybe they would want to use the pictures for marketing purposes; I'd hope they don't do racial profiling or something related.

Holding up their IDs in the photos?

Wouldn't their last names be enough for that purpose in most cases?

Actually they are one of the most openly racist ones, unfortunately. They clearly categorise their jobs as "for native and non-native speakers." I just find this whole thing that they are demanding very uncomfortable, and I am wondering if any other writer feels that way. :( I mean it's like you have been arrested and have to hold up an id for a photo. Pretty ridiculous no??

Even giving them any piece of ID for their files is unsafe since the majority of the companies themselves aren't disclosing their proper IDs or where they're operating from. They can use it for any illegal activity and we all know wherever you go they ask you for some kind of ID. How you could you be sure that these kinds of companies aren't being started to harvest IDs. And if they want to make those IDs public that's even worse.

Native-language fluency isn't the same thing as race.

There's also a very understandable reason that a company would choose to reserve orders for native writers. You don't have to look any further than this forum for examples of ESL writers who think their horrible English-writing abilities are good enough to write professionally in English despite being unable to put together even a few simple English sentences in their forum posts without mangling the language. Even most of the very few who might write fairly well in English are still recognizably ESL. No native-speaking customer wants to pay hard-earned money for that, especially, without agreeing to accept work produced by ESL writers. In the last 10 years, I've encountered exactly THREE whose writing in English is passable as native-English writing.

What's so hard to understand about that?

@FreelanceWriter
That is pretty racist. But if you do not understand that, it can't be helped. You should look up the history of colonisation and the English language sometime.

Anyways, the point is that revealing so many details to an organisation that does not seem to find it essential to function in a transparent manner is what is making me anxious.I just want to ask any writers who work for the company if they have done this already? I understand that this is a shady line of work, but I don't see why the writing firms cannot respect the writers' privacy, especially when they already have an established relationship with them??

So, non-native speakers of English is now a "race"?
(Can't people of every race be native speakers of English?)

One way or another, collecting pictures of freelance writers holding their picture ID has an icky sentimentality. Still, I'm very sure there are ways around that - "get a picture of me (I look intelligent) holding my ID for 5 bucks on fiverr!" :)

Although no one is being forced to comply with this ridiculous demand (I agree with Major), it is certainly within the rights of an essay company to include this requirement as part of the application process. Despite my disagreement with this policy, I am willing to share such a picture with anyone as shown below:

The problem with submitting an ID to these companies is that they do not require just any valid ID, they more often than not, require a valid government ID from the country of the writer. Nobody knows what they plan to do with this information but I for one, never require my writers to submit any form of identification due to the nature of our business and the problems that may arise from the safekeeping of these electronic data. What I do understand is that the companies that choose to implement the valid ID system do so because they have discovered that their writers have been selling their writer accounts to the highest bidder. Forcing the company to deal with writers who they never hired in the first place.

There are some academic writing companies that claim to have a "withholding tax" on the earnings of the writer, which they remit to the said person during tax season. That is perhaps one reason why they require a valid ID from the applicant. While the information could be used negatively by some other players in the academic writing game, the truth is that there are some countries that require employers, regardless of their business type. To keep valid IDs of their employees, regardless of the person's work location. Perhaps this was one such company. I have no problem submitting a valid government ID to my employer, provided he can justify the need for it and show proper evidence to support his claims.

Essay companies don't have to withhold taxes for their writers, because they're all self-employed independent contractors. In any case, the IRS identifies taxpayers by their Social Security numbers, which, unlike ID cards, can't be faked.