Registration Philosophy (Draft)

1. Purpose

Registration exists so a real person can become a member with enough information to create a secure account, support local Chamber placement, keep an accountable membership record for the institution’s internal needs, and support accountable membership while reducing disposable or automated accounts.

It answers what we collect and why — not what appears on a public Personal or Business page. Public display is an Identity Visibility question (separate model, later).

Registration is not mass KYC, not government-ID harvesting, and not a blue-check purchase.

2. What registration is

Membership entry: fields and consents to create an account, with a clearly defined scope. Collecting a field means the platform needs it for membership, security, or local placement — not that it is automatically public.

Confirming your email is the primary gate before normal login. Full meaning of “verified” comes later (Verification Philosophy), after Privacy.

3. What registration is not

Refusal	Meaning
Not mass KYC	Joining is not bank onboarding.
Not government-ID enrollment	No passport, national ID upload, driver’s license, or SSN/tax ID to register.
Not biometrics / selfie	No face scan to join.
Not identity harvesting	No maximum documents “just in case.”
Not selling identity	Membership data is not sold as a product.
Not a blue-check purchase	No paid fame or paid “truth.”
Not “collect = publish”	Required ≠ public. Visibility is per identity type.
Not “Verified = passport”	Do not assume KYC from the word verified elsewhere.

4. Principles

Minimum necessary data
Every required field has a why
Collect ≠ publish
Explicit refusals
Local Chamber logic
Accountability without KYC theater
Provability — matches live form
Lifecycle → Privacy
Purpose end → minimize when lawful

5. Reality v1 — what we ask today

Product lock: gender, street, and phone are required for everyone at account creation. Below is why. Public vs hidden is not decided here.

What we ask (and why)

Data	Why	Req?
Language / Terms	UI, communications, legal consent	Yes
Name	Membership accountability	Yes
Gender	Stable demographic for membership records, relevant product/communication routing, and aggregate statistics — not an identity-politics questionnaire	Yes
Email	Login, recovery, security; confirm before login	Yes
Geo → county / city / ZIP	Local Chamber / local network placement	Yes
Street address	Internal membership / institutional needs: location of record, Chamber operations support, integrity — not a claim that the street is public	Yes
Phone	Provides a platform contact and recovery capability and supports anti-abuse measures (SMS confirmation may be completed later when configured — not automatic at join)	Yes
Password / CAPTCHA	Security / anti-bot	Yes

Collect vs public

	Registration	Identity Visibility (later)
Street	Collected for all	Personal: typically hidden by default; user may show. Business-class: typically public.
Phone	Collected for all	Same idea — display per identity/settings
Email	Login identity	Generally not a public listing by default

Exact defaults → future Identity Visibility Model. Until then: collecting address or phone does not mean we publish them on your Personal page.

Phone — Reality accuracy

Required at registration and stored
SMS confirmation is optional later in profile — not automatic at join
Trust “phone confirmed” and public display of the number are separate

What we do not ask

Passport / national ID / driver’s license / SSN
Biometric selfie
Credit card for free membership
Religion as a join requirement (optional later on identity only)

Point: Passport / SSN / biometrics / selfie KYC are not part of registration today.

What comes next

Privacy Philosophy → Explained → Policy
Verification Philosophy (shorter)
Identity Visibility Model (must build)
Identity Privacy Model (must build)

Privacy Philosophy draft →

← Official Documents · Registration Process