Wikipedia:Account Verification

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

MediaWiki, Social Login, OpenID Connect and account verification

Configurability

With respect to account verification functionality, system administrative options for configuring installations of MediaWiki are envisioned to include, but to not be limited to:

Whether or not to activate the account verification features for a MediaWiki installation or upgrade.
Whether account verification is required or optional for their new and existing end users.
Which from an extensible list of social login or OpenID Connect providers can their end-users utilize to verify their account.
How many social login or OpenID Connect providers must their end users link to their account for corroborative account verification.
Whether their verified end users can choose whether to display their real names or utilize pseudonymous usernames.
Whether their verified end users can choose whether to provide hyperlinks to their connected account pages on their user pages.
Whether their administrators have a page protection mode such that only verified end users can edit a thusly protected page.
Whether their administrators can suspend or revoke verified end-users' account verification privileges.
Whether to display a verification checkmark next to the edits of verified end-users and next to their usernames on their user pages and which graphic icons to utilize.

Configuration options for MediaWiki system administrators and subsequently contingent configuration options for end users can maximize utility for all parties concerned across a large number of MediaWiki use case scenarios.

Account verification on Wikipedia

With highly configurable MediaWiki functionality, Wikipedia could choose whether and configurable how to utilize account verification features in a manner that exactly aligns with their policy.

Page protection

With account verification, Wikipedia administrators could be equipped with a page protection mode such that only verified accounts could edit a protected article or category of articles. Rationale for such page protection modes include the rationales of semi-protection and extended confirmed protection.

Good standing

With account verification, Wikipedia administrators could be equipped with the capability to suspend or revoke end-users' account verification statuses.

Proponents

Proponents of account verification on Wikipedia maintain that it, and resultant administrative tools, would mitigate:

Opponents

Opponents of account verification on Wikipedia have concerns including:

Protecting anonymous contribution
Protecting data privacy (account verification processes may entail the storage of end users' real names as users choose to verify their accounts)
Real-name policies run afoul of long-standing Internet culture and conventions
Real-name policies may disadvantage or endanger marginalized users or victims of violence or harassment
Real-name policies are insufficient for preventing spam
Real-name policies are insufficient for preventing trolls

Technical discussion

OpenID Connect

The OpenID Connect 1.0 specification defines a set of standard claims. They can be requested to be returned either in the UserInfo Response, per Section 5.3.2, or in the ID Token, per Section 2.

The table below indicates the set of standard claims and is from Section 5.1 of the OpenID Connect 1.0 specification.

Member	Type	Description
sub	string	Subject - Identifier for the End-User at the Issuer.
name	string	End-User's full name in the displayable form including all name parts, possibly including titles and suffixes, ordered according to the End-User's locale and preferences.
given_name	string	Given name(s) or first name(s) of the End-User. Note that in some cultures, people can have multiple given names; all can be present, with the names being separated by space characters.
family_name	string	Surname(s) or last name(s) of the End-User. Note that in some cultures, people can have multiple family names or no family name; all can be present, with the names being separated by space characters.
middle_name	string	Middle name(s) of the End-User. Note that in some cultures, people can have multiple middle names; all can be present, with the names being separated by space characters. Also note that in some cultures, middle names are not used.
nickname	string	Casual name of the End-User that may or may not be the same as the given_name. For instance, a nickname value of Mike might be returned alongside a given_name value of Michael.
preferred_username	string	Shorthand name by which the End-User wishes to be referred to at the RP, such as janedoe or j.doe. This value MAY be any valid JSON string including special characters such as @, /, or whitespace. The RP MUST NOT rely upon this value is unique, as discussed in Section 5.7.
profile	string	URL of the End-User's profile page. The contents of this Web page SHOULD be about the End-User.
picture	string	URL of the End-User's profile picture. This URL MUST refer to an image file (for example, a PNG, JPEG, or GIF image file), rather than to a Web page containing an image. Note that this URL SHOULD specifically reference a profile photo of the End-User suitable for displaying when describing the End-User, rather than an arbitrary photo taken by the End-User.
website	string	URL of the End-User's Web page or blog. This Web page SHOULD contain information published by the End-User or an organization that the End-User is affiliated with.
email	string	End-User's preferred e-mail address. Its value MUST conform to the RFC 5322 [RFC5322] addr-spec syntax. The RP MUST NOT rely upon this value is unique, as discussed in Section 5.7.
email_verified	boolean	True if the End-User's e-mail address has been verified; otherwise false. When this Claim Value is true, this means that the OP took affirmative steps to ensure that this e-mail address was controlled by the End-User at the time the verification was performed. The means by which an e-mail address is verified is context-specific and dependent upon the trust framework or contractual agreements within which the parties are operating.
gender	string	End-User's gender. Values defined by this specification are female and male. Other values MAY be used when neither of the defined values is applicable.
birthdate	string	End-User's birthday, represented as an ISO 8601:2004 [ISO8601-2004] YYYY-MM-DD format. The year MAY be 0000, indicating that it is omitted. To represent only the year, the YYYY format is allowed. Note that depending on the underlying platform's date related function, providing just a year can result in varying months and days, so the implementers need to take this factor into account to correctly process the dates.
zoneinfo	string	String from zoneinfo [zoneinfo] time zone database representing the End-User's time zone. For example, Europe/Paris or America/Los_Angeles.
locale	string	End-User's locale, represented as a BCP47 [RFC5646] language tag. This is typically an ISO 639-1 Alpha-2 [ISO639-1] language code in lowercase and an ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 [ISO3166-1] country code in uppercase, separated by a dash. For example, en-US or fr-CA. As a compatibility note, some implementations have used an underscore as the separator rather than a dash, for example, en_US; Relying Parties MAY choose to accept this locale syntax as well.
phone_number	string	End-User's preferred telephone number. E.164 [E.164] is RECOMMENDED as the format of this Claim, for example, +1 (425) 555-1212 or +56 (2) 687 2400. If the phone number contains an extension, it is RECOMMENDED that the extension be represented using the RFC 3966 [RFC3966] extension syntax, for example, +1 (604) 555-1234;ext=5678.
phone_number_verified	boolean	True if the End-User's phone number has been verified; otherwise false. When this Claim Value is true, this means that the OP took affirmative steps to ensure that this phone number was controlled by the End-User at the time the verification was performed. The means by which a phone number is verified is context-specific and dependent upon the trust framework or contractual agreements within which the parties are operating. When true, the phone_number Claim MUST be in E.164 format and any extensions MUST be represented in RFC 3966 format.
address	JSON object	End-User's preferred postal address. The value of the address member is a JSON [RFC4627] structure containing some or all of the members defined in Section 5.1.1.
updated_at	number	Time the End-User's information was last updated. Its value is a JSON number representing the number of seconds from 1970-01-01T0:0:0Z as measured in UTC until the date/time.

Corroborative account verification works with the standard set of claims. The OpenID Connect 1.0 specification indicates in Section 5.3.2 that the claims defined in Section 5.1 (the table above) can be returned as can additional claims not specified there. See also: Section 5.5.

Some ideas for additional claims are indicated:

Member	Type	Description
name_verified	boolean	True if the End-User's name has been verified, otherwise false. When this claim value is true, this means that the OP took affirmative steps to ensure that this was the name of the End-User at the time the verification was performed. The means by which a name is verified is context-specific, and dependent upon the trust framework or contractual agreements within which the parties are operating.
account_verified	boolean	True if the End-User's account has been verified, otherwise false.
account_verification_score	number	A value between 0 and 1 which represents an identity score.
created_at	number	Time the End-User's account was created. Its value is a JSON number representing the number of seconds from 1970-01-01T0:0:0Z as measured in UTC until the date/time.

Facebook Login

From the Facebook default fields (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/permissions/v3.0#reference-default_fields):

Field Name
id
first_name
last_name
middle_name
name
name_format
picture
short_name

A field from the basic permissions category (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/permissions/v3.0#basic-permissions):

Field Name	Description
email	Provides access to the person's primary email address via the email property on the user object.

A field from the larger set of the Facebook extended profile (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/permissions/v3.0#reference-extended-profile):

Field Name	Description
user_link	Provides access to the Facebook profile URL for another user of the app.

LinkedIn Login

From the LinkedIn basic profile (https://developer.linkedin.com/docs/fields/basic-profile) data, to access any of the following basic profile fields, your app must request the r_basicprofile member permission:

Field Name	Description
id	A unique identifying value for the member. This value is linked to your specific application. Any attempts to use it with a different application will result in a "404 - Invalid member id" error.
first-name	The member's first name.
last-name	The member's last name.
maiden-name	The member's maiden name.
formatted-name	The member's name, formatted based on language.
phonetic-first-name	The member's first name, spelled phonetically.
phonetic-last-name	The member's last name, spelled phonetically.
formatted-phonetic-name	The member's name, spelled phonetically and formatted based on language.
headline	The member's headline.
location	An object representing the user's physical location. See Location Fields for a description of the fields available within this object.
industry	The industry the member belongs to. See Industry Codes for a list of possible values.
current-share	The most recent item the member has shared on LinkedIn. If the member has not shared anything, their 'status' is returned instead.
num-connections	The number of LinkedIn connections the member has, capped at 500. See 'num-connections-capped' to determine if the value returned has been capped.
num-connections-capped	Returns 'true' if the member's 'num-connections' value has been capped at 500', or 'false' if 'num-connections' represents the user's true value.
summary	A long-form text area describing the member's professional profile.
specialties	A short-form text area describing the member's specialties.
positions	An object representing the member's current position. See Position Fields for a description of the fields available within this object.
picture-url	A URL to the member's formatted profile picture, if one has been provided.
picture-urls::(original)	A URL to the member's original unformatted profile picture. This image is usually larger than the picture-url value above.
site-standard-profile-request	The URL to the member's authenticated profile on LinkedIn. You must be logged into LinkedIn to view this URL.
api-standard-profile-request	A URL representing the resource you would request for programmatic access to the member's profile.
public-profile-url	The URL to the member's public profile on LinkedIn.

The following member fields require the r_emailaddress member permission:

Field Name	Description
email-address	The LinkedIn member's primary email address. Secondary email addresses associated with the member are not available via the API.