Age and Identity Verification Price?

They want the last four digits of your SSN so that it can be checked against your complete SSN, which the identity verification bureau can get at. (Unlike for example the UK, in the USA we don't have database privacy laws that control the exchange of such personal information.) The purpose is to cross-check your address with your SSN to make sure you're not lying about who you are.

They could also use the SSN at a later time, when the federal authorities want to verify that the person who played the illegal gambling (eg. Sploder) or who cashed out some $L on the exchange, was the citizen/taxpayer who they think it was.

PLEASE!!!! Yahoo or Google BUY Second Life and save us all!

so much wrong information in this thread...

the 3rd party operates in ~153 countries, it shouldn't be that bad.

The 3rd party is not (supposed to be) keeping any of your information at all, nor are they giving any of that information to Linden Labs. They are merely checking the info, then sending a "yes, 18+ verified" or a "no, not verified" response to Linden Labs, which affixes that to your account. After all of this the info is supposed to be completely removed. Yes the company keeps and collects peoples information for a lot of their business, and even for some other internet sites... but this is because the main customer ALLOWS them to... Linden Labs has said that no information will be kept, which means Linden labs will (have to) get that in writing as part of the contract, and the 3rd party will (have to) honor it.

Hey! No confusing things with facts, Missy!