Future of the Patreon... again. (bit of a serious discussion) (Patreon)

Hey guys, sorry there haven't been any recent updates, but I've been deciding on something. I got a notification from Patreon asking me to verify my age. Not a big deal. However, to do so I have to give them a photo of my driver's license and a selfie. They will then transmit those images to a third party who will then verify my age. 

I pay for a service that keeps track of when sites I use have data breaches. The result is that I have a very cogent understanding of how risky this is. Breaches happen so often that I habitually change my passwords and do 2FA everywhere I can. 

If you get to know me personally, one thing I bristle at is arrogance. That's from experience. An arrogant person is usually an easy target for a scam. That goes double for an arrogant company. The ones who think "I'm too smart to be fooled." are the same kind of people who say "This service is too good to be hacked." And that's the argument that Patreon is making for this third party. "They're rated so highly for security." Sure they are.

At the same time, maybe I'm just being paranoid. I've been listening to other creators, especially those in the NSFW space, and other platforms have a similar verification system. I am personally going to look around. If Toph Heavy moves to another platform for support, the prices will remain the same. 

tl;dr, I don't trust the company doing the verification to keep my data safe, so one of two things are going to happen. I go to another platform, or I bite the bullet and do the verification. I haven't truly decided, and it may be a good idea to set up separate platforms elsewhere just incase.

You don't have to worry though, I am going to continue posting next week as if I am staying here. 

If anyone has any insight I'd appreciate hearing it.