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Privacy United States Your Rights Online

Decode Your Barcode, Get Your Personal Info 299

Posted by michael from the mark-of-the-beast dept.
Chris writes "The Swipe Toolkit is a collection of web-based tools that sheds light on personal data collection and usage practices in the United States. The tools demonstrate the value of personal information on the open market and enable people to access information encoded on a driver's license or stored in some of the many commercial data warehouses. Check out the Data Calculator, which shows how much your personal info is worth, and how the data brokers get it. It's all part of the Swipe Project, which will be on exhibition at UC-Irvine in March."
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Decode Your Barcode, Get Your Personal Info More

Decode Your Barcode, Get Your Personal Info

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  • Moron (Score:5, Funny)

    by DarkHelmet ( 120004 ) * <.mark. .at. .seventhcycle.net.> on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:22PM (#8176406) Homepage

    I saw this story as a subscriber before most everyone else did, so I go to the site and download all the software before the site ends up getting slashdotted.

    I then download java, run the jar, scan my driver's license... doesn't work.

    Then I rotate the image 180 and find out it doesn't work.

    Then I go online and notice that California doesn't have a 2d barcode on the back of their licenses.

    Which comes to the rule of the day, which is apparently applicable to myself:

    You can be enough of a nerd to care about what's on your barcode, and still be a complete fucking moron

    • Re:Moron (Score:5, Funny)

      by strobexii ( 601986 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:29PM (#8176465)
      Then I go online and notice that California doesn't have a 2d barcode on the back of their licenses.


      Hmm, my California license has a 2d barcode on the back. And suddenly I feel very uncomfortable.

    • Re:Moron (Score:2, Informative)

      by AgentOJ ( 320270 )
      Older California licenses have magnetic stripes on the back, rather than barcodes. In order to read those, you'll need a magstripe reader.

      • Death to magnetic stripes (Score:5, Interesting)

        by DoraLives ( 622001 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:57PM (#8176638)
        licenses have magnetic stripes on the back

        Mine does too. So the first thing I did with it after I got it was to lay it on a steel table at work and take a whacking big speaker magnet and just go to town on that thing. I've had law enforcement question me about the lack of data on that stripe, but so far a doofus look and a shrug of the shoulders has seen me on my way. Your mileage will vary.

        • Re:Death to magnetic stripes (Score:2, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          I doubt it's legal to intentionally erase the magnetic stripe. Mine got too close to a hard drive's voice coil magnet. I love those magnets and ripe them out of any worthless hard disk. I should have been more careful.
        • Aww, I just looked on the back of my liscence and saw that it does have a barcode. I just ripped apart my new Harmon/Kardon speaker for nothing :(

        • Re:Death to magnetic stripes (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Ben Jackson ( 30284 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2004 @01:20AM (#8177714) Homepage
          It probably said much the same thing as the plain text, so all you've done is force the officer to pay attention to your license more carefully than he would have if he'd just swiped it. You already said you got questioned about it -- don't you think the officer also checked your records extra carefully when he was able to pull them up despite your trick?

          If you're handing your license to an officer you're way beond anonymity. Your best hope at that point is to keep a low profile.

      • incidentally, any recommendations for a magstripe reader and software?

        what about a writer?

        or just a pointer to a faq :)
    • because good is Dumb ;)

    • Re:Moron (Score:3, Informative)

      by malachid69 ( 306291 )
      I download the java app, ran it.

      My wife's license didn't work, but mine did. They are both Oregon licenses, but I noticed hers had the sticker on it (larger bar code and not as "clean"), whereas mine was fresh (from last renewal).

      Mine contained my name, address, license#, birthdate, etc -- luckily no SS#.

      Malachi

    • Re:Moron (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Ateryx ( 682778 )
      ...I go online and notice that California doesn't have a 2d barcode on the back of their licenses.

      My experience was actually the exact opposite. I checked my id (new as of March 2003, so less than one year old), and saw no 2d barcode. Figured, what the hell, and decided to look to see what good 'ol Minnesota has for privacy (overall not too bad, only a few [slashdot.org], separate mess ups [slashdot.org].) I saw that Minnesota indeed does have a 2-d barcode, however it is nowhere on anyones licences that I checked made this year (I

  • Wow! My CueCat will be useful again! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:23PM (#8176413)
    Good thing I didn't throw it away.
    • I used mine to keep track of my customers DLT tapes. Since we were up to a library of ~500 tapes and were changing them out at a rate of 25 every 10 days or so it really paid off. In fact I had my brother write a little VBA app on top of Access to keep track of their container and position. That way when the library needed new tapes I could take the reports from Veritas and pick out the tapes that were ready to be reused and know right where they were. Before doing this it took me about 3 hours a week to ch

  • This is very important to me (Score:5, Funny)

    by IchBinDasWalross ( 720916 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:24PM (#8176418)
    Well, it would be, if I didn't live in my parent's attic and if I did actually have a driver's license.

    • An attic? Neat! (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I bet you get great radio reception and have a nice view. Lucky, I'm stuck down here in the basement.

  • DMCA the freakers! (Score:5, Funny)

    by mauthbaux ( 652274 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:26PM (#8176438) Homepage
    so, where can I copyright my own personal info and sue the pants off of all these freakers passing around unauthorized copies?

  • Old POS system (Score:5, Informative)

    by KalvinB ( 205500 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:27PM (#8176444) Homepage
    that's "Point of Sale"

    When I worked at Peter Piper Pizza it was quickly learned you could exit the program handling orders to get to a prompt. You could then swipe any magnetic card through the CC reader in the keyboard to see what was on it. You just had to swipe it at the right speed to get everything.

    Ben

    • Re:Old POS system (Score:5, Informative)

      by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:39PM (#8176528)
      Most barcode readers / magnetic swipe readers work with drivers that simulate keystrokes... and that's why the point at which you're allowed to scan the card just happens to be same screen at which you can type the number in manually. The device just needs to be configured for what sequence of enters/tabs/etc. to enter after a scanned number.

      For example, a credit card reader at a POS unit would be set to output the first 16 characters on the card, and then maybe [tab] to exit the entry box and [enter] to clear the "Are you sure? Y" prompt. Hook the same reader up to any free-text entry screen, and the number ends up in plain view.

    • Re:Old POS system (Score:4, Informative)

      by MikeDawg ( 721537 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:21PM (#8176780) Homepage Journal

      I used to work for a POS Helpdesk for an *unnamed* gas station/c-store. We could always dig through the log files to read what sort of input was recorded from a cardswipe on a CC#. There are actually several (usually 2 readable) tracks on your average CC.

      The data on the MS of your major CCs are usually <15-16 digits - ala your CC #>=<exp date>

  • not necessary (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:27PM (#8176447)
    i already have my personal data, thanks.

  • When will the knock off start (Score:4, Interesting)

    by manganese4 ( 726568 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:27PM (#8176449)
    So when will the first knock off site appear asking you for simialr information but actually keep an image of it on their server?

  • I'm not sure I care about this. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by musingmelpomene ( 703985 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:28PM (#8176455) Homepage
    In my opinion, we're less than 100 years away from basically a total lack of "privacy." I'm not entirely sure this is a terrible thing, but it will certainly have interesting ramifications for society.

    Once people know that essentially no one's a saint, we'll all be a lot better off without the sanctimonious holier-than-thou crap we get so much of today.

    I am honest in all my dealings except the occasional shoplift from Barnes & Noble. I'd be fine with a lack of privacy, because everyone would be under equal scrutiny. The thing that bothers me is unequal privacy - which we're at right now.

    Once everyone's life is part of a public record, we're all equally screwed and we can build our society around a new, more honest paradigm.

    • Re:I'm not sure I care about this. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by metroid composite ( 710698 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:36PM (#8176504) Homepage Journal
      A lot of privacy issues, videocameras in stores, monitoring what IPs have visited a certain site, et c. are already universal to everyone in the territory. I'm curious as to which privacies are unequally shared; most that I can think of depend purely on where you tread.
      • The problem is what you discussed has NOTHING todo with privacy.

        You expect privacy... when you're being private, that is to yourself. When you are in the middle of a public mall or visiting my website you are no longer treading "in private" and therefore have zero expectation to privacy.

        It's like bitching that falling in a pool makes you wet. If you don't like being wet stay out of the pool. If your privacy is so important to you then don't mingle in society.

        Tom

    • Re:I'm not sure I care about this. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by aralin ( 107264 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:50PM (#8176590)

      Its idealists like you that are source of the problem. Get it in your head once and for good: "People are not equal! People will never be equal!"

      Once you get this little bit, you might stop dreaming about people being all equally screwed since that will never happen.

      And when you stop dreaming, you might start to adjust to a world where people are not equal and start to vote for politicians that are aware of the issue and start asking for laws that will protect the weak from the strong and for society that works for both. And stop get abused by people that try to ram this strange concept down your throat to make you feel good about yourself.

      And when you put all this in context with the US Supreme Court decision that Corporations are for all the legal matters "people", you get closer to my point.

    • The problem with the idea of everyone having an equal lack of privacy is that will never happen.

      Corporations, governments and those who control them will continue to have as much, if not more, privacy than they do today. So, just as the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer in America today so too are the powerful getting more privacy and the rest of us are getting more public.

    • Re:I'm not sure I care about this. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by beakerMeep ( 716990 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:03PM (#8176681)
      Yes but what if I don't want you to use my personal info to build your new society.

      Why do people think that if nobody has any privacy that it naturally correlates with positive advancements toward open society? Wouldn't a lack of privacy be a boon to criminals and civilized society alike? Isn't this what we are seeing now with the rise of the internet?

      I think the point is not whether or not privacy benefits society but whether or not an individual has a right to it. Personally, I like my privacy too a resonable extent because I don't like the idea that there are a bunch of people out there who compile profiles on me. Profiles that serve only a limited few purposes such as:

      A) selling me products
      B) stealing from me
      C) arresting me
      D) providing me medical treatment (see A)

      While A and C could be good in some situations (ie I am a criminal or I got the right medical treatment because of a profile) I just don't see enough good in a total lack of privacy.

      I think there will always be bad people in this world and if the data is out there and allowed to be shared it will be used for malice at some point but I think that's the key. As long as the data has strict sharing guidelines it can be beneficial. Without that, it does the individual AND HENCE the society very little good compared to the potential harm.

      • Why do people think that if nobody has any privacy that it naturally correlates with positive advancements toward open society? Wouldn't a lack of privacy be a boon to criminals and civilized society alike? Isn't this what we are seeing now with the rise of the internet?

        Depends on how persuasive the lack of privacy is.

        If it's essentially impossible to be private, then crime essentially vanishes. And, even better, if the "TIA" system works well enough, we'll see as the first change a massive drop in fals

    • more like 10 yrs (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bobalu ( 1921 )
      I think it's more like 10 yrs, but this is a very good point which I believe is overlooked by the pols. A truly independent data mining approach like the Total Information Awareness debacle of the less-noticed state-based "Matrix" program would catch all the associations between politicians and graft. Tthe GAO sued to get Dick Cheney to identify the parties in his energy task force, unsuccessfully. If that were public knowledge... in real time... hmmm. Maybe time to buy stock in the human courier business.

    • Re: I'm not sure I care about this. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bezuwork's friend ( 589226 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:21PM (#8176783)
      I'd be fine with a lack of privacy, because everyone would be under equal scrutiny.

      You really think politicians and others of power would get treated the same way?

      Would never happen, I think. The control of data collection would have to be in the hands of an entity (a) not under the control of the government, politicians, or police but (b) subject to regulation which the people, or at least attorney generals, can enforce.

      It is the same problem with security cameras. Alot of /.ers say they are ok so long as everyone is treated equally. But, for everyone to be treated equally, wouldn't the people have to have equal access to the tapes?

      I agree in principle with you that if everyone is treated equally, it should be ok. I do have a caveat, though (and this is something that alot of /.ers will probably have first hand experience with, as IT personnel). As more and more data is aggregated about people, it will be easier for those in power to abuse others. I've seen people at work get fired for viewing pornography when I know the bosses did it at work as well. The inequity in access to the company records in that case means the employee has a tough battle to fight such abuse. As privacy declines, these abuses will become easier. It is nothing new, just easier.

    • I am honest in all my dealings except the occasional shoplift from Barnes & Noble.

      Did you know that there are these places where you can get books without paying for them? They are called libraries. If you went there, you could consider yourself honest in all of your dealings, without an "except..."
      • Yeah, I know, I read that little comment and lost all respect for the guy and anything else he had to say. I don't shoplift, it's wrong and illegal. You can be convicted and maybe pay a fine, or worse spend time in jail, but either way you now have a felony record. That kind of stuff does not sit well with employers, and the records are easy to get.

        I think the only time I ever shoplifted something was at a grocery store, and accidentally left a packet of seasoning or something in the bottom of the cart and
        • Hmmm... isn't shoplifting a misdemeanor not a felony?

          • Re:shoplifting (Score:3, Informative)

            by cybermace5 ( 446439 )
            That depends. Shoplifting becomes a felony at certain levels. For example, in Georgia, the threshold is $300.00, or it's your fourth offense for ANY amount, or you took $100 from three different stores within 7 days. Once you hit felony shoplifting, the minimum sentence is 1 year. The max is ten years. Other states have different rules no doubt, but Georgia's came up first in Google.

            Not really a thing to be playing around with. If they catch this guy on tape taking these things, and he racks up to the thre

        • I read that little comment and lost all respect for the guy and anything else he had to say.

          Doesn't this demonstrate one of the needs for privacy? Whether he stole a book or not should not affect the validity of his point. Although some may need such information, such as an employer who could be putting themselves at risk, others have no real use for it.

          I guess that just goes along with my answer to those that say "Only those with something to hide want privacy." Maybe I do have something to hide.

    • I think 100 years is *wildly* optimistic. The last 100 we went from literally a horse-and-buggy society straight into the Electronic Age, and from mainframes to handhelds in a quarter of that. I expect to see my every move tracked within the next 20, and DMV barcodes are tame next to face-recognition systems and rf tags.

      I imagine that implantable chips have been discussed here before, probably ad nauseum, but it isn't much of a stretch to imagine that within a quarter century everyone under the age of 15

  • You can easily see... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by centralizati0n ( 714381 ) <tommy@york.gmail@com> on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:28PM (#8176457) Homepage Journal
    You can easily see that with a service such as MSN Hotmail, who already sells your personal info, your standard "I had best enter the correct info, or else bad things could happen" person can easily give them (as this project puts it) about $10 worth of personal info right in the sign-up boxes. MSN could then do a search through some of these free services and get even more money, as the information gains value if it is all stored in one location. We can then see how offering free email to the unwashed masses can be very profitable.

  • ALL YOUR INFO.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by segment ( 695309 ) <sil AT politrix DOT org> on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:34PM (#8176491) Homepage Journal
    Today, information is everything. Whether in insurance, government, banking, law enforcement, healthcare, the legal industry, or other fields, getting the information you need to know.now. quickly and easily is essential for smart decision making.

    Accessing critical information is as easy as point-and-click. Using ChoicePoint Online's powerful search capabilities, you can easily search more than 14 billion records on individuals and businesses. Whoopdeedoo. Choicepoint and companies like them probably have more than you can spend your life trying to hide. Personally I blame it on utter laziness. Here's a day in the life of Avgjoe...

    Avgjoe wakes up everyone morning and turns on the radio to hear the news while he gets ready for work. He uses XM satellite for news... (subscriber info sent)

    As he gets into his car after getting ready he joyously turns on his car. "Welcome to OnStar" (userinfo sent). Driving over the Triboro bridge, Avjoe happily avoids crowds and goes through the EZPass lane. (info sent). Upon entering Manhattan he decides to fill up the tank at Mobil with his credit card. (info sent)

    Driving down 1st avenue he eats a yellow light (snap snap go the cameras). Avgjoe is sent a ticket. "Hey I can fight this..."

    Do the math if Avgjoe committed a serious crime he could be tracked to the minute if needed. If Avgjoe was Avgjoe do gooder who happened to be a politician who pissed off other politician, do gooder Avgjoe's information could also be abused.

    You want what privacy or ease of use? Privacy? Dump your credit cards, and all other forms of digital clutter so you can complain less, unless you're just a whiner complaining while typing this with a what? UID... Ah yea a UID.

    • He uses XM satellite for news... (subscriber info sent)

      I can see where XM might be passing out mere subscriber info left and right (XM is partly owned by the Borg, Clear Channel)

      Technologically I'm not sure how they know WHEN you tune in or what you listen to since it's a passive reception system.
    • You want what privacy or ease of use? Privacy? Dump your credit cards, and all other forms of digital clutter so you can complain less...

      This would be a great solution if it didn't make you a second-class citizen. Want to fly? Must have ID. Want to rent a car? Must have credit card. Want to conduct business? Must have a phone.

      To rent my apartment I had to go through a credit check. To eat for the same price as my neighbor I had to give my info to the grocery store.

      It's not merely convenience. We'
      • We're effectively being forced to do this to participate in society

        That's very true. You are. That's what defines a society. But nobody says you have to live in this society. Pick another one, or just move into the wilds of Canada and forget society. There has got to be a side effect to all of that convenience. To 99.99% of people in society, the "lack of privacy" (I don't think it is at all) is worth that convenience, which is why we have "societies" in the first place.

      • To eat for the same price as my neighbor I had to give my info to the grocery store.

        I don't buy anything that's 'on sale' via their cards. Even if it's only a 10 cent difference. I go to their competitor for those items. If all stores in my town were holding boneless skinless chicken breasts hostage to the cards, well, I can eat hamburger (or steak) tonight.

        Haven't checked the site lately, but nocards.org used to have a good FAQ on why you shouldn't just give bogus info to get one of those cards.

    • It is not just EZPass you have to worry about. You have to avoid the toll roads altogether. I was watching one of those crime shows on TLC/Discovery and they were able to prove the suspect had used a toll road because they had the snapshots of his car/license plate from the toll booth. The catcher is, he used the manual lanes and paid the toll in cash. Those cameras don't just catch toll cheats, they "catch" everyone. I don't recall the state, but if one is doing it, then you have to assume they all ar

  • May or may not work (Score:5, Informative)

    by jkitchel ( 615599 ) <<jacob_kitchel> <at> <hotmail.com>> on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:36PM (#8176498)
    Some states encrypt the data before they put it in the barcode on the back of your license. It helps to prevent fake IDs. At least in Indiana, some of the liquor stores have scanners in them, through a deal with the state to read the back of the ID which has a PDF 417 [azalea.com] 2D barcode. That way when some 5'5", black hair, brown eyed underage person presnts the ID and the data on the back shows 6'1", blonde hair, blue eyes, they know it's a fake.
    • Some states encrypt the data before they put it in the barcode on the back of your license. It helps to prevent fake IDs

      All the instances (I've heard of ) regarding encrypted machine readability was due to privacy concerns and not to prevent counterfeit cards.

      Though I could see law enforcement/DMV agencies believing that line. But it makes no sense, at the very least, I could find someone with a similar body type and then just copy and past their barcode onto my counterfeit ID.

  • If nobody ever bothers to RTFA... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Audent ( 35893 ) <audent.ilovebiscuits@com> on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:41PM (#8176535) Homepage
    ...how do we slashdot the sites?
    • I'd be willing to bet the majority (if not the vast majority) of Slashdot readers simply RTFA, maybe follow the links, and then move along. They have neither the time nor the inclination to read, much less post on, these forums.
  • Alright, who downloaded the stand alone 2d barcode reader? I am itching to read my license data now. Someone please mirror it. For those of you who couldn't get to the instruction you should use a large GIF scan (~1meg) for best results. A digital camera works but not as well.

  • lobbying work (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JimBobJoe ( 2758 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @09:57PM (#8176632)
    Here in Ohio I've actually got a few legislators entertaining the idea of introducing (or at the very least co-sponsoring) legislation to prohibit machine readibility on driver's licenses.

    I've done it by convincing them that machine readability will cause more fraud. How?

    The experience is that when a human has a machine that does scanning, the human will take a quick glance at the photo (or no glance at all) and then swipe/scan the card...and the card will say X and the human will believe it. Based just on that, remagnetizing the card or even an overlay sticker over the barcode can be very successful.

    Indeed, the only thing separating the cheap plastic card from being an other cheap plastic card is the hologram and other visual/tactile elements that humans detect, but machines don't. If humans have to examine the card in depth before scanning it, then there is little reason to actually have the scanning machinery.

    Which is cool...because the Ohio BMV does pay a touch extra for the plastic card blanks with magnetic stripes, so getting rid of the stripes saves a touch of money...at least enough to keep the conservatives listening.

    And then I hit the privacy arguments...which I save for last.

    These things take time incidentally...especially here in Ohio where legislators are deathly afraid of making a mistake, and the full year calendar means that they can take their damn time doing things.

    But I was quite honored the other day...as I walked by one of the senior administrators of the BMV she stopped talking...she didn't want me to hear anything she was saying. Quite the compliment.

    Machine readability is also discused on my New Jersey driver license privacy site, listed below.

  • Credit cards (Score:2, Informative)

    by k4_pacific ( 736911 )
    I work with Point-of-sale systems, so I know what is on a credit card. There are two tracks of data. The first contains the credit card number, name, expiration date and some checksum info. The second contains number and expiration date again, with more checksum. That is all. Also, the first digit of the account number indicates what kind of card it is:
    3 - Amex
    4 - Visa
    5 - MasterCard
    6 - Discover
  • Here is a mirror of the barcode reader file: http://www.waiknott.com/mirror/SwipeBarcode.jar [waiknott.com]

    Here are the instructions: This SWIPE tool allows you to crack a 2D barcode. Ever noticed the barcode on the backside of your license? Ever wondered what information it stores or why it is even there? Use our online application or the stand-alone program and put an end to the mystery! It is your data, so shouldn't you have a look? Learn more about the 2D barcode and your driver's license.

    WHAT YOU NEED TO BEGIN

    1

  • Use the "Fletch" Approach to disappear.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by i_want_you_to_throw_ ( 559379 ) * on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:07PM (#8176697) Journal
    Always register for customer loyalty cards under phony names: Ted Nugent, Harry Truman, and John Cocktosen are favorites.

    Need a fake SSN for your long distance service? (Really they don't need this) use 078-05-1120. It's an Eisenhower era specimen number that works 99% of the time.

    Wired has a great story that these are pulled from. See it here [wired.com]

  • Copy of Standalone Reader (Score:4, Informative)

    by theGreater ( 596196 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:17PM (#8176760) Homepage

    gzipped jar here [oc.edu]

    I've always wanted to see if my school's MS only infrastructure could stand up to a good pounding...

    -theGreater Slacker.

    PS: They say to scan your license in so that it's between 1500 and 2500 pixels long, or between 1 and 2 MB in size. I don't have a scanner, though. Or a job.

  • NYS (Score:3, Informative)

    by Quixote ( 154172 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:19PM (#8176770) Homepage Journal
    New York State uses a PDF417 barcode too at the back of the license.

    I remember when it first started being used, and we happened to be working on a PDF417 decoding program.

    We ran the license's barcode through our decoder, and found that the only "encryption" used in the barcode was to store the data in binary mode, instead of the text (alphanumeric) mode.

    NYS also puts PDF417s on the car registration stickers.

    I wonder what use are these, without a PGP (or similar) signature?

  • Oh, this can't be good... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Call Me Black Cloud ( 616282 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:21PM (#8176779)

    My barcode decodes to "THX-1138"...
  • I find this fascinating. Especially the data calculator. Does this accurately depict how much the grocery store gets when they sell my information? That's what I'd really like to know. For all those sites that make you sign up, how much are they then able to sell MY information for?

    It's also interesting to note that "sex offender" is only worth $13. Personally.....I think someone might value it a little more highly than that......

  • I've done this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PetoskeyGuy ( 648788 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:30PM (#8176827)
    I was working on an application where the client wanted to be able to swipe a drivers license and get all the user data - name, address, height, weight, etc for quick data entry. We investigated and found that each state has different formats, and not all states put all that info on their cards in mag or bar code formats. We hoped to get all of this info quickly when people test drive a car.

    We would have had to develop a different format for each state and in some cases resorted to scanning and OCR. In they end they decided they can type it in themselves rather then pay for development.

    I did learn that serveral states were considering a standard format. Believe me that marketing companies are DROOLING over the day when every person has their Multi-Pass type card.

    Very interesting to see the dollar amounts though. There should be a column for that on the 1040's. :)

    BTW, to the person who mentioned a use for cue-cat - I have about 50 of them and they don't work that great. They are about 5 bucks on ebay, or free if you take the left overs from your local radio shacks.

  • Military Records -- "Jackpot" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by akpoff ( 683177 ) * on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:35PM (#8176851) Homepage
    I checked out the calculator [turbulence.org] and found that record values typically range from $0.50 to $10.00. Couple of bonus records:
    • Education: $12.00
    • Employment: $13.00
    • Workers Comp: $18.00
    • Bankruptcy: $26.50
    Court records bring in some big dough:
    • Lawsuits: $2.95
    • Sex Offendors: $13.00
    • Felonies: $16.00
    But the biggest payoff comes for Military Records: $35.00.

    When I got out of the military in the early 90s we were strongly encouraged to take our DD-214 (summary of military records) and submit them to the county clerk when we got back home so they'd become public record, that way if we ever lost it we could go look it up. I'm REAL GLAD(tm) I worked with Privacy Act information for my whole career and developed a healthy reluctance to hand out the juicy tidbits contained on my DD-214, e.g., SS#, DOB, education, and of course your whole military career.

  • Been Out For A While (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CritterNYC ( 190163 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:38PM (#8176866) Homepage
    At some point, some time ago, there was a report about the bars in Boston scanning in the 2D codes on the back of licenses and then using it to send junk mail. The bars in New York City do the same thing. They won't let you in without "scanning" your license to be sure it isn't fake. They place it under a blacklight in a reader and it gets scanned. The club then has a record of every person, their address, description, birth date and drivers license that entered the club. On commercial licenses in some states, your Social Security Number is also encoded, so they'd have that, too.

    Remember that, and think twice if the place you're about to enter really needs a complete copy of all the information on your driver's license. I've refused to provide it and taped over the back so noone can scan it quickly before I realize they're trying to. I haven't been refused access to anywhere yet.

  • Swipe this big bro.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pair-a-noyd ( 594371 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @10:42PM (#8176883)
    I took my DL and dropped it on the concrete, stood on it and twisted it on the concrete to render the bar code un-readable.

    Then I took a LARGE degausser and nuked the mag-stripe into absolute oblivion.
    And everytime I present my DL to any institution at their request/demand, I degauss it all over again, just to be sure in case they reprogrammed the mag-stripe.

    When I go to the bank they have to use the phone and verify my license by reading the numbers over the phone since it is no longer machine readable.
    Same thing when Mr. Busy Body policeman pulls me over to see if I have illegal farts in my pants or something. They tell me my license is "not working right" and that I need to have it replaced. I just tell them yeah, I dropped it and it got ran over in the driveway and that I am going to take care of it right away.. Yeah right.

    Soo sorry, I don't play their game, I play the game my own way..

    • Thank God that you make Big Brother go to a little extra trouble to find our your DMV-recorded address, your weight when you were 18 years old, and the color of your eyes.

      Jesus, get a life before you end up drilling a hole in your left temple.
    • Right...

      All of the informatiion in that 2D barcode (or the magstripe, for that matter) is in the DMV database. With your license number, they can look it up easily.

    • Looks like you want attention (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheLink ( 130905 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2004 @04:32AM (#8178230) Journal
      And you'll get it. After a while some of the cops are going to know you by name AND face - "Yah that one with the broken card again". Plus the cops always have to pull your records from the online database for checks - so you might show up in a DB statistic/log somewhere. They can't just go - "Cards ok, looks like just another Joe, move along now".

      If you want some semblance of anonymity, you hide in the herd. Or you go move somewhere else totally.

      You don't hang around the herd looking and behaving different from everyone else, unless you want to be singled out on a regular basis. If the herd is chewing cud, you don't go around stomping unless you want to attract attention.

      The NSA etc don't give a damn about the 80-90%. It's the unusual ones they watch.

      The marketeers are interested in the 80%, but if you behave just like everyone else and hide the bits where you are different, you vanish into one of the Common categories.

  • Post links to online sources of personal data (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Let's have a thread here of nothing but links to places you can get personal data for free online. I'll start us off:
    1. First name, last name and zip code to birthdate [anybirthday.com]
    2. First name, last name, city and state to phone number and address [yahoo.com]
    3. Phone number to name, address, city, state and zip code [google.com]

  • Used at Six-Flags theme park (Score:5, Interesting)

    by danwiz ( 538108 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @11:24PM (#8177176)
    I was at Six-Flags theme park last summer and they scanned my Connecticut driver's license to determine if I was of legal age for a $4 cup of beer. They trusted the scanner and didn't even bother looking at the birthdate on the front. I now have concerns that my purchase info is in the company's database. If (or when?) this data is sold it could affect my health/life/auto insurance, privacy, etc.

    Also, if I were stopped by the police on the way home this data could declare me guilty of DUI before proven innocent. Pretty bad since my girlfriend coaxed the beer away for herself before I could drink it.

  • I got my barcode on my leg (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MajorDick ( 735308 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @11:29PM (#8177211)
    I got a barcode of my DOB and SSN tatooed on my leg, I needed a 'cover up" tat for scar and (Yes I did the unimaginable and had my Ex's name tatooed on me :) Anyhow about 8 years ago I wanted to get the mess on my leg covered up, I thought about all kinds of stuff but needed something fairly solid, Soooo, barcode it was , (my cuecat will even read it :)

  • Swipe Project needs Accurint (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2004 @12:22AM (#8177475) Homepage
    The Swipe Project should sign up for Accurint [accurint.com], so that when you put in your card, you get your whole dossier. That would show people how much is known about them.

  • No digital sigantures? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by supersat ( 639745 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2004 @01:44AM (#8177773)
    I'm surprised these 2D barcodes don't have digital signatures encoded in them to verify the authenticity of the data. I think it'd cut down on the number of fake IDs used.

    Many places are now using the 2D barcode to verify your age, but in many jurisdictions (such as Oregon), when you change your address, they issue you a plain STICKER with your new PDF417 barcode printed on it. Anyone with knowledge of the AAMVA standard could create their own barcode sticker, making them any age they want. This is precisely why digital signatures are needed.

    When someone asks for your ID, they'd scan it into a device, which would use the issuing jurisdiction's public signature to verify the digital signature on the barcode. Assuming the data is authentic, it'd then display the encoded data on a display. The person checking your ID would compare the data on the display to that printed on the front of your ID. If both match, you can be fairly certain the ID is legit.

    Of course, there'd probably have to be a law prohibiting places from storing your personal data without your explicit consent.

    If you're curious about the exact data format of the barcodes and magstripes, check out the AAMVA DL/ID standard at http://www.aamva.org/Documents/stdAAMVADLIDStandrd 000630.pdf (2000 edition) or http://www.aamva.org/Documents/stdAAMVADLIDCardSpe cs_092003.pdf (2003 edition). Among other things, it also spells out recommended security measures.

  • Who is driving that cellphone ? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by andyr ( 78903 ) <andyr@wizzy.com> on Wednesday February 04, 2004 @02:44AM (#8177938) Homepage Journal
    Folks,

    I live in South Africa - one of many countries that use the GSM [gsmworld.com] mobile standard. Here I have a pay-as-you-go SIM card, meaning that I am almost anonymous.

    Going on a month business trip to Australia - I plan on doing the same thing - get a pay-as-you-go card, so I take my GSM phone over.

    Go to the corner store - "Starter pack please".

    "Sorry Sir, we need you to fill out all this information - Gov regulations, sorry."

    Name, passport number, other phone numbers, drivers licence, DOB, blah blah.

    I fill it all out.

    "After they verify the information, your SIM card will be turned on"

    Every single piece of info was wrong, yet my phone came on the next day.

    Cheers, Andy!

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