Thanks for the responses. I guess my next question is, by providing my photo ID to a site like mtgox which is pretty well established and legitimate, as far as that goes, is this a relatively safe thing to do? Or am I seriously putting myself at risk for a breach of my identity?

Assuming it is safe, then by providing all this information to an exchange, am I responsible for reporting what I exchange? God help us all when a 1099-BTC comes into existence.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, do I have to worry about all the potential big brother issues that come from my identity being tied to where and what I exchange, or is it simply to combat money laundering and therefore nothing I need to be worried about?