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Decode Your Barcode, Get Your Personal Info

Posted by michael on from the mark-of-the-beast dept.

Chris writes "The Swipe Toolkit is a collection of web-based tools that sheds light on personal data collection and usage practices in the United States. The tools demonstrate the value of personal information on the open market and enable people to access information encoded on a driver's license or stored in some of the many commercial data warehouses. Check out the Data Calculator, which shows how much your personal info is worth, and how the data brokers get it. It's all part of the Swipe Project, which will be on exhibition at UC-Irvine in March."

5 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Old POS system by KalvinB · · Score: 5, Informative

    that's "Point of Sale"

    When I worked at Peter Piper Pizza it was quickly learned you could exit the program handling orders to get to a prompt. You could then swipe any magnetic card through the CC reader in the keyboard to see what was on it. You just had to swipe it at the right speed to get everything.

    Ben

    --
    Work Safe Porn
  2. May or may not work by jkitchel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some states encrypt the data before they put it in the barcode on the back of your license. It helps to prevent fake IDs. At least in Indiana, some of the liquor stores have scanners in them, through a deal with the state to read the back of the ID which has a PDF 417 2D barcode. That way when some 5'5", black hair, brown eyed underage person presnts the ID and the data on the back shows 6'1", blonde hair, blue eyes, they know it's a fake.

  3. Use the "Fletch" Approach to disappear.... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Always register for customer loyalty cards under phony names: Ted Nugent, Harry Truman, and John Cocktosen are favorites.

    Need a fake SSN for your long distance service? (Really they don't need this) use 078-05-1120. It's an Eisenhower era specimen number that works 99% of the time.

    Wired has a great story that these are pulled from. See it here

    1. Re:Use the "Fletch" Approach to disappear.... by coolmacdude · · Score: 5, Informative

      Need a fake SSN for your long distance service? (Really they don't need this) use 078-05-1120. It's an Eisenhower era specimen number that works 99% of the time.

      LOL, not anymore.

      --

      -You may license this sig for only $6.99.
  4. Re:Credit cards by Nashirak · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually the first digit doesnt always tell what kind of card it is. You can also work the checksum algorithm from simply the numbers (This is called the Luhn alogrithm). The way credit cards are usually handled is as follows:
    (where the numbers are the first numbers of the credit card number)
    Visa - 4
    Mastercard - 51-55
    Discover - 6011
    Amex - 34

    In fact credit card companies have a specific range of numbers to pull from, clubs have another range, and there a few other number ranges that are broken up... see:

    http://www.merriampark.com/anatomycc.htm for a better indepth overview.