but isn’t it nice when we’re all afraid at the same time?

Was Lucrezia Borgia the calculating, greed-driven murderess history has painted her? Perhaps not.

There is a real, and very human, cost of loot boxes and gachas in triple-A games. And let's be fair, we've seen some of this with rare items offered in gachas in Second Life. Digital addictions can be just as devastating as physical ones.

And now...let's discuss Tilia.

Now, I will say this is not the first time I've heard of Tilia, because when I bought Lindens today, it said I was buying them from my Tilia account. My what? But I was busy, so I just hit "Buy" and went on with life.

From the page linked above:

"We’re making some important changes to Second Life that will help us comply with U.S. laws and regulations. To do this, Linden Lab formed a new subsidiary, Tilia, to offer certain financial services to the Second Life community. While Tilia might not be a name that is familiar to many in the Second Life community, it was created to efficiently handle the ever-growing and complex needs of our operations."

So, near as I can figure out so far, the formation of Tilia shoves financial responsibility off to this newly-formed subsidiary division, so that if anything really goes wrong, Tilia takes the hit and not Linden Lab? Am I wrong, or am I misunderstanding?

Pursuant to that mention, one of my groups started discussing a bit of the situation:

[20:46] Fxxxxx Bxxxx: does anyone see this already?

Ms. F is referring to the link given above, which I'm going to break down further as we go on.

[20:46] Ixxxxxxx Axxxx: yeah
[20:48] Cxxxxxxx Kxxxx: Goodness! they're going to ask for social security numbers!

Really? Where does it say that?

Beginning on August 1, 2019, Tilia will take over certain aspects of the Second Life service. Tilia enables Linden Lab to continue the Second Life service in its current form through enhanced regulatory compliance protocols.

"Enhanced regulatory compliance protocols" seems to mean, to me at least, "We got caught doing something hinky and we're being told not to do it again" or "Some other country has exacted better financial guidelines than the US has, and we have to comply with those whether we like them or not".

I did a search for the phrase and came up with the WhatIs definition:

"Regulatory compliance is an organization's adherence to laws, regulations, guidelines and specifications relevant to its business processes. Violations of regulatory compliance regulations often result in legal punishment including federal fines."

That still sounds obscure, but reading through the WhatIs article gives me several examples of regulatory compliance laws: the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposes far stricter guidelines for banks and financial institutions, the PCI-DSS, which is essentially a group of guidelines and laws that are used together to regulate credit and debit cards, and to secure digital privacy, HIPAA, which is supposed to ensure digital privacy for medical insurance, plus prohibits insurance and group health plans from denying health insurance based solely on pre-existing conditions, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, turned into law in 2002, which is designed to protect investors from accounting "errors" by large financial firms, and other fraudulent financial reporting, and FISMA, which is another series of regulations and bylaws that assign data privacy protection to several governmental agencies in case of "natural or man-made threat". So, I think I'm getting the gist of what they mean--Tilia is Linden Lab's new financial arm. I think.

To achieve this, Tilia will assume responsibility for managing your USD denominated account, which will be referred to as your "Tilia Account." After August 1, Tilia will handle process credit requests and payments made from your Tilia Account.

So...we won't be registering a new account with Tilia? I'm confused.

What’s changing?

Effective August 1, in order to continue using Second Life you will have to agree to Tilia’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. A Tilia Account associated with your Second Life Account will automatically be created for you and you will not need a separate username or password to access your Tilia Account.

So.....Tilia's going to create individual user accounts for all of us and they will use the same password and username as Second Life? That's very dubious. At the least it's very insecure, especially considering how many laws listed above feature data protection.

In order to stay in compliance with regulatory requirements, if you wish to process a credit, we will need certain personal information to verify your identity, including your name, address, date of birth, and social security number (or government-issued identification if you are not a U.S. Citizen). You may be required to provide additional information to complete the transaction. Tilia will securely store this information so that you should only need to provide it once.

Ah, here it is. And now I can see why people are worried. Even in this country, giving unknown entities our SSI numbers is iffy, but for residents of the EU? It's actually illegal for them to give out personally identifying information.

Note, also, that this seems to apply only to people who "cash out", so to speak--in other words, mainly estate owners, businesses, nonprofit charities that need to withdraw Linden funds into local currency to complete the financial amount owed to said charities. How many of those are people living in the EU, who cannot give out such forms of identification?

Additionally, please note that customers under 18 years of age will not be able to process credit after August 1, 2019 until they reach the age of 18.

I'm actually fine with that, I'm still creeped out that the Lindens merged Teen Grid with the regular grid, and all of a suddden, I had to look at everyone through that "Is this going to get me accused of statutory rape?" lens.

As always, Second Life remains free to access and enjoy! However, if your Tilia Account is inactive for a period of 12 months we will charge your Tilia Account a fee to the extent permitted by applicable law. If you have questions about the inactivity fee, please see Tilia’s Terms of Service.

First time I'd heard mention of a fee, so I went looking. Their ToS contains some dense legalese, but I think section 3.4, "Fees", covers it:

You agree to pay the applicable fees listed on our Fee Schedule published on the Website (”Fees”) for use of the Tilia Services. All Fees are charged at the time we process a transaction and are applied to the payment method you select. We reserve the right to change our Fees upon thirty (30) days’ advance notice. By continuing to use the Tilia Service after a change in the Fees, you hereby agree to such change. All Fees, charges, and payments collected or paid through the Payment Services are denominated in US dollars.

Or...not, because they're still not saying how much the fees will be, at least in the ToS. That's irksome.

And when I went off to Google to check if the website was up yet:



...Oh.

Look, Lindens, I realize you have a theme, I realize "tilia genus" is the name of the Linden tree, ha ha, very amusing...but did you not once stop to consider other businesses running with the same name? By my count, just on the first page, there's a couple wineries, four restaurants, and a band--not to mention on the second page, there's a naturopathic clinic, more restaurants, a property management group, and a flooring company. Great.

[20:48] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Linden Lab has done a *horrible* job of communicating what's going on. But if you read and understand the TOS and a bit of contract law (I'm a contract lawyer in RL) then it's not the big deal it sounds like.

Well, really, when hasn't the Lindens done a horrible job of communicating, on ANYTHING? Be real.

[20:48] Mxxx Hxxxxxxx: its going to basically be illegal to withdraw money in many countries due to LL asking for more information than even some financial institutions are allowed in some cases
[20:49] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Is this due to money laundering?
[20:49] Mxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: whats up with an inactivity fee?
[20:49] Ixxxxxxx Axxxx: ok then i'll stop it
[20:49] lxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: yep I am confused. I already did the verify with LL's.
[20:49] Mxxxx Sxxxxxx: I thought it pertained to people who make money in here
[20:50] txxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: thats wrong
[20:50] kxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I don't like this inactivity fee, seriously?

I don't either. I especially don't like not being able to find even briefly sketched guidelines for what it will eventually be.

[20:50] Axxxx Nxxxxxxx: is this just for if i wish to convert L$ into USD? or is this for buying L$ also

Don't quote me, but it sounds like it's just when people are transferring Lindens into local currency? But I could easily be wrong.

[20:50] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Long ago, when I joined nearly 13 years ago, we had to give personal information such as our driver's license number or passport ident. That was to ensure that we are in fact of age to be in adult related sims. A few years after I joined LL got hacked or something, so they removed that requirement.
[20:50] Bxxx Hxxxxxxxx: Meh, my identity isn't doing much for me. Maybe someone else can do something exciting with my SSN. lol
[20:50] Sxxxxxxx Lxxx: there is a decent thread about it in the SL Forums, lots of questions and confusion, but a few tidbits that are helpful
[20:50] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Nope.
[20:50] Pxxx Dxxxxxxxxx: maybe they trying to find out how many alts people have
[20:50] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Sigh. I'm lagging so bad I give up.
[20:51] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: You can have alts, back in the day you had to pay $9usd to create a new account.
[20:51] Fxxxxx Wxxxxxx: I remember that [Nxxx]! I gave them my credit card number or my paypal or something so I could buy Lindens. But I never did give them my drivers license or passport. Still would have a problem with that.
[20:51] jxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Tilia is owned by Linden Lab
[20:51] Mxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: so if we dont cash out any more lindens after August will we still have top pay a fee?
[20:51] jxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: wasn't there was an issue years ago with the gambling' in SL and there was money laundering going on?

Oh, there probably still is, it's just more underground than it used to be.

[20:52] kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: this is just following the same path as crypto. The gov wants their cut of money made in sl. its income.
[20:52] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: There was a data breach before, it was even listed on the wiki once. Where all those driver's licenses and passport idents were at risk.
[20:52] Ixxxxxxx Axxxx: as i've already said, i paid for a year of my premium membership already and wasnt asked anything

Because this is a separate system from paying premium fees. That is likely still handled by the Lab. Financial withdrawals, starting August 1st, will not be handled by the Lab, but by the functionary Tilia.

[20:52] jxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: l have a small store but I have never cashed any in. I just us the lindens inworld
[20:53] axxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Same with Skype asking for mobile now, it's voluntary now but one day it might be the gatekeeper.
[20:54] jxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: all they are doing is gathering our personal info and sharing it

Well, any large company is doing that. In that regard, LL is just doing the same thing everyone else is.

[20:54] Mxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: the tilla is for cashing out or using your lindens as a credit right?
[20:54] jxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: SL is free to play as long as you pay the yearly fee to there new company Tilia

Wait, there's a yearly fee to use Tilia? When Linden Lab is making it mandatory for all users of SL? I haven't heard that.

There's a lot that's still up in the air, apparently. I'll keep reading.