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Website Posts Partial SSNs of Politicians in Protest
John3 writes "The Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights has posted partial Social Security numbers for several California politicians to protest their vote against pending privacy legislation. According to a San Francisco Chronicle story, the SSNs were purchased on the Internet for $26." Now there's an effective way of showing the problems of the status quo.
They can rething things and change the law. Laws aren't set in stone.
Exactly...in fact the article says that the legislation may be reconsidered on Monday.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
Useful information derived from SSN can be found here . You can see everyone was born in CA by the first three numbers. Group numbers can be verified, but isn't the serial numbers the important information?
Well, it actually does matter. Say you found Bill's first usa visa credit card on the ground. If you call their 1-800 number (written on the back of the card), they ask you for the last 4 digits of the primary card holders social security number for certain transactions. While this method is by no means fullproof (or even that effective at all) it is still a security check point to someones financial data. If one can easily access a person SSN (and thus their zip code, middle name, and various other trivia that could be used as a security check point) then it becomes much more difficult to authenticate financial transactions over the phone using an automated system.
I know this seems like a very picky example, but I'm sure stuff like this actually happens.
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I was born in Egypt. I picked up my father's geographic location in my SSN.
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This actually exposes an interesting gap in SB 1386.
Under SB 1386 (which goes into effect on July 1), any entity covered by the law has a duty to notify California residents âoein the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delayâ when it is known, or reasonably believed, that âoepersonal informationâ stored on the entityâ(TM)s computer systems has been disclosed to unauthorized persons as a result of a security breach. An entity is only exempt from the notification requirement when: (a) the âoepersonal informationâ disclosed was already publicly available through the federal, state, or local governments; (b) the âoepersonal informationâ was stored in an encrypted form; or (c) the unauthorized person would be unable to link the California residentâ(TM)s name with other sensitive data (e.g., Social Security number, credit card number, etc.). Entities that fail to comply with SB 1386 can be sued by individuals whose personal information was disclosed for damages suffered due to the disclosure (i.e., damages resulting from identity theft).
But, SB 1386 does not cover information legitimately sold, such as the SSN information acquired by the lobbying group. (I'm assuming that they weren't receiving stolen information.)
John
"The plural of anecdote is not data."
It only determines where you were registered for the number. I was born in New Jersey, but have a California prefix of 572. We moved out here whan I was about 3.
This was done after the bill was passed....how could posting the SSN after the fact change anything?
Actually it was done after the bill was killed. If the bill had passed, what they posted may have been illegal, as it stands they were showing the politicians what exactly they could have prevented.
By the way, your bank does need your SSN because it needs to send tax information to the Feds. But your doctor, dentist, or insurance company certainly do not.
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The first three digits of a SSN tell you in which state a person was born. THe first three digits of mine are 001 which tells you I was born in New Hampshire. Thats like saying:
"We just posted the partial addresses of all lawmakers in protest"
George Bush Washington DC
Howard Dean Vermont
Just post the whole thing. How is this news? I agree with their stance but they should either be forceful or do nothing at all.
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
Your point is well taken. In fact, Congress passed the Privacy Act of 1974 in an attempt to address the issue:
h tm l
http://www.epic.org/privacy/ssn/testimony_0500.
It is up to the US Congress to recognize and restrict the use of the SSN as a Global Identifier, but the financial industry has a vested interest as their data is all keyed to it.
As far as I am concerned, I think posting public servant's SSN's is extreme, but they have ignored the issue for almost 30 years. Maybe a little civil disobedience is in order.