Comment by hypeatei
9 months ago
Does anyone else just not give a fuck at this point about their SSN? I feel like maybe early 00s this would be scary but it's clear that everyone's SSN is out there already or waiting to get breached from a shady private data broker.
The problem lies in how institutions treat the SSN, not the number itself.
Yes. 99% of the time “identity theft” means a huge company cut corners on their security policies and wants us to subsidize their negligence. Every so often there are cases like that guy who pretended to be his former coworker for decades but they’re rare enough that they make the news internationally. Most of the time it used to be things like instant credit applications where they didn’t “slow” purchases with ID checks.
The good news is that companies have lost the presumption of competence there. In the 80s if a company said they’d confirmed that an applicant was you using your SSN, a lot of people would falsely believe that was sufficient but by now they’re not going to get far if they sue you unless they can provide better evidence because everyone knows huge breaches have happened many times.
Not good news. Doesn't matter if the business is presumed competent. What matters is that the business can steal your assets to pay for their losses.
So … actually good news? It most definitely does matter that businesses are now expected to prove the case more reliably than they used to.
if you know place of birth, and place of ssn application, you can determine most of the ssn. the final 4 are supposed to be random, but are blurted out to rooms full of people and tech, during service.
the integrity of SSN security, was lost a long time ago
as of 2011 they are fully random instead of being based on geographical region and groups
https://www.ssa.gov/employer/randomization.html
Yes, but 100% of adults today were born before 2011, and that will continue to be (ever so slowly less and less true as we die out) true for decades. It's good and all, but.
yeah its too bad it took so long for that to happen.
> the integrity of SSN security, was lost a long time ago
The security never existed, since they were never intended to be secrets. At best it was theater.