this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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privacy
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Wait, is the SSN used to verify a person's identity?
Why would a static key ever be used like that?
It's not supposed to for anything but government. And it's not a key, it's an ID number. Not sure how else other than static you could do that.
It's also not supposed to be used for anything, but government (specifically, Social Security), and it even says so on the card.
Yet pretty much everyone uses it for identification:
Basically, any time an org needs to prove you are who you say you are, they'll ask for state-issued ID and your SSN. Every time. Sometimes they'll even want a copy of your SSN card, which is extremely stupid.
The SSN should only be used for SS benefits. If we want a federal ID, we should make a federal ID system based on challenge/response.
I'm up in Canada and we have the same problem with SSN .... as a kid one of my uncles told me that the SSN is only for government use and nothing else ... he explained that even banks shouldn't ask for it as it is not required. He helped me set up my first bank account when I was 15 and he insisted and fought with the bank branch that SSN were not required. After a bit of back and forth, they finally agreed and I got my first bank account ... which I've kept ever since over 30 years ago. And in all that time, I've protected my SSN from banks and credit services. Because I was able to start that first account, I could start new ones and grow from there.
Best part was ... about ten years after that, I got my first Credit Card and the form the bank gave asked me to verify my information ... INCLUDING MY FULL SSN WHICH THEY HAD IN THEIR RECORDS.
The privacy and security of these dumb SSN cards and numbers is a joke.
Because the US doesn’t have a federal identification card. At the state level you can use the id number of someone’s drivers license or state id for identifying them, which is marginally better since it changes with new id cards.
SSNs weren’t intended to be used for identification, but since there’s no other national option they effectively are.