Pendulum Swinging Toward Privacy

netbuzz writes "The New York Times reports this morning on a gathering movement to remove Social Security numbers from online public records. While justifiable, given the reality of and concerns about identity theft, it also doesn't take much to imagine how such concerns will be abused by public officials who are strapped for cash and/or ethically challenged."

Re:SSN is an account number

[malchus842]

It's simply a string of numbers indicating where money is stored for social security benefits.

There's no money stored anywhere. Social Security is a "pay as you go" system, and any excess funds are replaced with Treasury Bonds (IOUs from the taxpayers to fund Social Security in the future). At some point, the tax needs of repaying those bonds, as well as covering new retirees will exceed the ability of the workforce to pay - unless a significant change in the system is enacted.

Re:Doesn't Matter

[nsaspook]

If you have a old SSN card like mine it says on the bottom

FOR SOCIAL SECURITY AND TAX PURPOSES-NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION

This is from about 1970ish.

Re:Doesn't Matter

[JimBobJoe]

There's no such thing in any european country of my knowledge, and frankly I don't understand why the idea of a national ID with a picture on it to certify who you really are is so scary to you and the english. How is it possible for someone to impersonate someone else in the USA by simply using their SSN?

The problem is not the lack of an identity card (and I happen to disagree with the parent posters that somehow the point of failure is that the SSN is used both as an identifier and password.)

The problem is simply that we give large amounts of credit in the US very quickly. You can fill out a form and get a $10,000 credit line instantaneously. It's my understanding that that is unique to the US. When you have that much money available that conveniently, it's worth it to a fraudster to do whatever it takes to get it.

Honestly, your national ID card doesn't have these problems because you don't have so much on the line. If you had a mechanism in your country for getting $10,000 simply by filling out a form and showing ID, you'll find out very quickly that your ID card is pretty worthless when that amount of money is on the line.