Member-only story
Amazon, Photo ID, and Voter Suppression
How Old Am I?
There is a very old joke and it goes like this:
Q: How old are you?
A: Old enough.
Yesterday (Sunday evening) I was waiting for the delivery from Amazon of my order on its Prime service. That is for those who are not aware of this service — and probably, the only ones now left, who do not know, actually live in the Amazon rainforest or what's still left of it — is a one-day delivery service.
All was well as I had received notification of the delivery window and waited. My buzzer duly went and I went out to collect my parcel and was asked for my photo ID. I laughed. My laughter, was due to the fact that I had in all the eight times I had begun ordering had ever once been asked for any proof of my ID. I have always been asked for my date of birth.
I had been ordering alcohol which is an age-restricted product but if you look at my photo in the right-hand corner you will see that I am over — well over — any age that restricts me from buying alcohol. But the Amazon courier was adamant telling me this was a “new thing” being operated by Amazon. I laughed again and explained that my laughter was because I had been ordering for roughly eight months now on a monthly basis and I had never been asked before.
