Leaving Fotolia

[dgilder]

I'm dropping Fotolia, as they refuse to accept my drivers license with potentially dangerous information removed (DL number, etc.)   They already forced me to supply my social security number, and to keep a copy of my drivers license on the same servers with my SSN is just begging for identity theft if someone hacks into their system.   I asked them to explain more about what measures they have in place to protect our identities from fraud and they refused.

Not sure what everyone else will make of this, but thought the info should be out there in case other people try to be cautious with their personal information.

[dnavarrojr]

What is the reasoning behind needing your DL number?

[madelaide]

They require an ID with photograph. In my case I sent a photo of my passport with a tag "for use in Fotolia only" or something like that.

Why do they ask for security number?  As I an not in the USA I was never asked it.  Is it really necessary?

Regards,
Adelaide

[vphoto]

deleted

[Karimala]

They require an ID with photograph. In my case I sent a photo of my passport with a tag "for use in Fotolia only" or something like that.

Why do they ask for security number?  As I an not in the USA I was never asked it.  Is it really necessary?

Regards,
Adelaide

Unfortunately it is necessary for tax documentation. 

I just don't understand why they can't implement a more secure means to provide them with our personal information.  I've been complaining about it for a year and a half now, and the only thing that has changed is our personal info page is now encrypted.  Whoopee do.  It's actually against US law to store our SSN on a website like they do, but they don't seem to give a hoot.  Every other site has figured out a way to keep the info out of the hands of hackers...why can't they?  So...until they figure it out, my SSN is recorded as 000-00-0000 and I force them to contact me personally at tax time when they need it again so I can complain again. 

[dgilder]

It might actually be illegal for them to store the information the way they do.  I asked them to list the laws or other legal requirements they were attempting to meet by collecting my personal information, and asked them to describe the methods used to protect it (reasonable requests in my opinion) and they basically told me I was nobody special and 
they had 60,000 photographers who didn't  have a problem with it.

Then they had the gall to tell me to remove my portfolio myself online as a response to my request that they remove it from their site.

I put in a request to support to see if there is a faster way than manually deleting them.  Otherwise its going to take awhile.  Luckily I had cashed out recently so they are only stealing about $100 in unpaid royalties from me.

[jsnover]

The fight over this pointless and dangerous practice had happened a while back. I thought that Chad had said that altered (blurred or changed ID numbers) was acceptable and I had been willing to live with that compromise (that's what they have for me).

The exercise is completely pointless as they have never seen the original ID and thus cannot verify it against the person. I suggested that they allow a notarized statement (because then the notary has seen both the person and ID and signed) to be sent to them, but Chad turned that down.

This is just one more in an increasingly long list of burrs under the saddle with Fotolia. I would suggest you contact Chad via e-mail - support is worse than useless - and see if you can ask him to help you out here. To get paid and to delete your portfolio. You can't be any worse off than you are now...

[Karimala]

Oh good...I didn't realize they had finally obscured the SSN.  Thanks for the info, Joann.   

[dgilder]

I would suggest you contact Chad via e-mail - support is worse than useless - and see if you can ask him to help you out here.

Chad is the one who told me to delete my own portfolio if I wanted out, and that he could not make individual exceptions for me, since they have so many photographers.

I contacted support tonight and invoked Section 11, and Section 12b and 12c of the Terms and Conditions Agreement, wherein they agreed to, upon termination of the Agreement, remove my work from their website and pay any outstanding credit balance, minus the transaction fees stated in their payment rider, which should amount to 0 in this case.

[dgilder]

Oh good...I didn't realize they had finally obscured the SSN.  Thanks for the info, Joann.   

I think Joann was referring to blurring the ID number on the drivers license, not the SSN, but I could be mistaken.

[Karimala]

Oh good...I didn't realize they had finally obscured the SSN.  Thanks for the info, Joann.   

I think Joann was referring to blurring the ID number on the drivers license, not the SSN, but I could be mistaken.

I think you're right...but when I thought she was talking about the SSN's, I checked my profile at FT and noticed the SSN numbers are now obscured.  So...even if I did misunderstand, it turned out to be a good thing! 

[dgilder]

I think you're right...but when I thought she was talking about the SSN's, I checked my profile at FT and noticed the SSN numbers are now obscured.  So...even if I did misunderstand, it turned out to be a good thing! 

I couldn't see a way to edit the SSN they already have, I would have preferred to change it to all 0's as you mentioned earlier.

I suggested that they allow a notarized statement (because then the notary has seen both the person and ID and signed) to be sent to them, but Chad turned that down.

I would be more than happy to provide some kind of notarized document stating my identity.  That seems to be an extremely reasonable solution.  Their rejection of that option, combined with their refusal to state the reasons they require our actual IDs, combined with their refusal to offer any kind of reassurances over the safe storage of information that could easily be used for identity theft makes me more comfortable with my decision.  Would a company that seemingly cares so little about their suppliers offer much aid if a legal dispute developed over a photo licensed through their website?

[sam100]

They require an ID with photograph. In my case I sent a photo of my passport with a tag "for use in Fotolia only" or something like that.

Why do they ask for security number?  As I an not in the USA I was never asked it.  Is it really necessary?

Regards,
Adelaide

I live in belgium, and was asked to provide a pasport copy and SSN in order to get payments...:-)

Patrick H.

[dirkr]

In Germany they required the copy of an ID document. So I put my identity card on the office copy machine, faxed the copy to my e-mail adress and uploaded that as a jpg. Utterly unreadable. It's just some greyish blurr on a white piece of paper.
But after uploading that, I had no problems in getting my payments through 

Looks like they don't even look at it....

[Dreamframer]

They asked me to provide a photocopy of my passport. I don't know why thwe need this when so many other agencies don't need it.

[Freedom]

By the way, how do you delete Fotolia account? Do you have to delete one by one or just an email to support? How long does it take?

[dgilder]

I've got a ticket in to support, as far as I could tell you had to do them one at a time.  The terms and conditions says that they will remove them though, if the agreement is terminated, so I sent in a support ticket terminating the agreement.  Still waiting on their response.

[dgilder]

Just an update, the reply I received from support was that they were forwarding my termination request to the payment department.

Fotolia has still been selling my photos even after I terminated the agreement through their official method.

Beware, beware, beware.