On Wed, 23 May 2001, Faustine wrote:
>Certainly you're right, generally speaking. But if you amble on over to
>http://www.loompanics.com you can pick up books on any number of nifty frauds
>you can commit with SSNs because of the way things are set up in the US today.
All the more reason to post your number. That's the best way to undermine
both the uniqueness (people can copy) and legal responsibility ("*everybody*
knows my number") that (may) come with SSNs.
>Not really: why have a state-issued personal ID number at all.
Quite. Playing by the book by keeping your SSN secret isn't exactly the best
way to protest the concept of compulsory unique identification. (OTOH, I do
have a higher than usual tolerance for the concept of unique id's since they
do not /appear/ to be causing a whole lot of trouble in Europe.)
>"For other analysts, thc key concern is the effect on govemment
>administration. The potential dark side is captured in studies waring
>about the emergence of a 'computer state' (Bumham 1983), [...]
I think everybody on this list knows the trouble created by unique
identification, and the consequences it could have for effective government
surveillance of the citizenry. That development is well under way, here,
with a constantly growing slice of people's money being channeled through
the wellfare state, and the ensuing checks to see that people aren't abusing
the system. The last, and by far the worst, example is the right given to
the wellfare administration to check applicants' bank accounts for
unreported wealth. (And yes, it's real difficult to consistently decline
such subsidies once the percentage of GNP funneled through the public sector
has risen above 80%.)
>And I wouldn't be too quick to knock the benefits of privacy and anonymity
>either: I'm sure a look through these archives can provide you with a
>million reasons to reconsider the "I don't have anything to hide, so why
>worry" line of thinking.
I *certainly* do not have to get those examples from the archives. I have
plenty of stuff lying around on my harddrive which I certainly would not
like my neighbours to get their hands on. But my SSN isn't on that list. The
point is, as long as knowledge of your SSN isn't a court sanctioned form of
proof of identity, identity theft simply isn't a threat. It's what you
describe above, and that is best fought by widely advertising your number.
Besides, by far the most common example of identity theft I've seen is
credit cards issued under false a SSN. If you're concerned with your
privacy, you will not be using a credit card, and for larger sums one
assumes there are more rigorous checks of creditworthiness in place.
Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], gsm: +358-50-5756111
student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front
