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How To Stop Businesses Storing SSNs Indefinitely?
The Angry Mick writes "My wife and I recently moved, and during the course of providing change-of-address information to the many companies we do business with, I asked each if they were storing a full Social Security number in their databases, and if so, could they remove it or replace it with an alternate identifier. Neither the experience nor the results were particularly enjoyable. On the positive end of the spectrum, some companies were more than willing to make a change, even offering suggestions for a suitable alternate such as a driver's license number. In the middle were companies that made things a little more difficult, requiring several steps up the management tree before speaking to someone with some actual authority to address the issue. Then there was DirectTV. This company not only flatly refused to consider the suggestion, but also informed me that even if I were to discontinue service with them, they still intended to keep my full SSN on file indefinitely. There is no logical reason for them to do this, and I'm not keen on the idea of being left vulnerable to identity theft should they have experience any security breaches at any future point in my life. So, my questions to the Slashdot community are: Has anyone else tried getting your SSN replaced or removed in corporate databases, and what were your experiences? And short of Armageddon, is there any way to force a company to erase your SSNs after you cease doing business with them, or is this a job for a lawyer or regulatory body?"
Information wants to be free.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Your SSN has expired, please choose a new one.
Old SSN: __________________
New SSN: __________________
Retype new SSN (tip: copy from above): __________________
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
Generally speaking, I think they use a variant of this disclaimer.
Don't do that! Tin foil is actually aluminum foil, which is produced by Alcoa. Alcoa is a front for the New World Order and they treat the metal in such a way to actually increase signal propagation from your brain. The only real solution to government mind control or reading is to boil your head in distilled or rain water. 30 seconds at 100C should be enough.
Something I've considered, it seems that SSN's are being used very similarly to passwords. Make sure to use good security practices and change yours every 60 days.
Pound! Bang! Bin! Bash! is this a shell script or a Batman comic?
We had people from a regional hospital come to our office for free PSA testing. When I asked about the need for an SSN on their form, I was told they used it for patient tracking. I left it blank, and they told me it was mandatory. Well, there was no threat of perjury statement on the form, and no signature, so I gave them a fake one. Fuck 'em. They don't need my SSN if they have my name, phone number, and the doctor I want the results sent to.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
So it was you who gave them my SS#!
You insensative Clod!
WTF? Over?
In the glorious future, the government will extend resources to financial institutions that mistakenly issue credit on fraudulently provided information, and help them deal with and resolve the consequences of their actions.
The hilarity of that statement makes me sad.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
You also get to vote if you get a registration card from ACORN!
Poor Maria Gonzalez. All of them.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Here's a couple things you can try:
DROP TABLE customers
DROP TABLE accounts
DROP TABLE users
Almost every insurance company requires it to process your claim. Now, whether the insurance companies should be able to do that is a whole different argument.
For fun, try having twins and have the insurance agency disallow the second child as duplicate service.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Everyone should just pick a number between 987-65-4320 and 987-65-4329 and use that. That block is reserved for use in advertising.
-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."