Comment by sieep

3 months ago

> Just look at the freaking mess that is trying to proof your identity in the US.

Care to elaborate? I'm not sure what's a mess about a driver's license, social security card. I've never once had any issue with my identity.

40 comments

sieep

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sigmoid10  3 months ago

Not everyone has (or can have) a driver's license and a social security card literally says it is *not* for identification because it lacks even the most basic aspects. But since the US never managed to come up with an actual system, companies started using SSNs like an identity verifier, because it is the one thing everyone has across every state. But that also makes identity theft or credit fraud trivial in the US compared to other countries.

  • dylan604  3 months ago

    > a social security card literally says it is not for identification

    It no longer says this, and has not for a long long time. My parent's cards did, but mine does not. Also, I'm old (for this forum at least), so this isn't a recent change.

  • ibejoeb  3 months ago

    That's correct, but what does a driver license have to do with it? A state-issued driver license is one document that can serve as identification. There are plenty of others, including those that are solely for identification. Are you unintentionally conflating them, or are you suggesting that there a eligible people who are unable to get an identity document?

  • dotancohen  3 months ago 

      > identity theft

    Identity can not be stolen.

    Some financial institutions may not have proper fraud prevention policies, but that is a problem both caused by and to be resolved by the financial institution, not the consumer. Pretending it's the consumer's problem may protect the financial institution, but leads to entire categories of new problems far more devastating. Don't pretend some nebulous concept of identity has been stolen. Say it like it is: the financial institution was defrauded due to their own lax policies.

    • abustamam  3 months ago

      Identity theft is commonly understood to be exactly what you just mentioned. Obviously no one can steal me (which is exactly what I thought when I first heard the term as a broke college kid; who wants to be me anyway?)

      We aren't "pretending" it's a consumer problem. It is a consumer problem. When someone opens up a credit card or loan in my namd, whose life gets messed up? Not the banks! Pretending it's not a consumer problem is dangerous and can lead to a lot of messed up financial lives.

      Personally, I freeze my credit with all major bureaux, and I shred any mail that has my name on it. It's annoying, yes, but the alternative is even more annoying.

      3 replies →

abustamam  3 months ago

I think they're talking about proving your identity to a non govt entity. A few things that come to mind are any platform with a KYC, they require you to upload your ID and assure you they're secure with a little lock icon.

  • masklinn  3 months ago

    Even proving your identity to a government entity is non-trivial, as can be seen by the administration trying to use that as a new poll tax.

    • abustamam  3 months ago

      When I needed to get my newborn daughter's social security card I went to the local SS office, only to be turned away because I did not have an appointment. So I went home, finally got an appointment after an hour on the phone, trying to explain why I didn't have her SS card (apparently "it never arrived" did not compute), went back the next day with my passport card to provide as proof of identity. Only for them to say "we don't accept passport cards as ID. We can use your license though!"

      Baffling.

Congeec  3 months ago

The identity issuer - the government - already has the your privacy. If you have a unique identifier from the government which websites can call the government with to verify your identity, you won't lose any privacy. All the websites get is just a unique string, no date of birth, no name, no address. This approach is the cornerstone of oauth/oidc.

swiftcoder  3 months ago

> I'm not sure what's a mess about a driver's license, social security card

Neither of those are accepted by various states' voter id laws, nor can you reliably board an airplane with them since RealID.

The only foolproof identity card in the US appears to be a passport (which, you know, global federal identity card... exactly what the folks against universal ids dislike)

  • bix6  3 months ago

    My drivers license is a real id and has been for like 5 years? This is a non issue if you went to the DMV instead of waiting until now.

  • otterley  3 months ago

    My research suggests that all U.S. states that require identification at the polls accept a driving license as a form of valid photo ID. Are you aware of any that don’t?

  • pessimizer  3 months ago

    > Neither of those are accepted by various states' voter id laws

    You've made this up.

    > nor can you reliably board an airplane with them since RealID.

    That sounds like a problem that they created, and can choose to uncreate. I don't need to know the identity of people on planes any more than I need to know the identity of people in trains, buses, or taxis. "RealID" itself is dumb, and was the result of wearing down popular resistance for decades.

  • hedora  3 months ago

    The federal government is trying to create problems. For instance, a Real ID won't be good enough to vote this fall if SAVE passes:

    https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/apr/18/byron-dona...

    There are also a bunch of other gotchas: Original birth certificates and all currently-issued military IDs are not acceptable, for instance (even though the bill lists birth certificates and military IDs as acceptable, there are carve-outs to ban the common cases).

    Good luck getting a passport between now and then.