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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?"
Linux is well known to be an unreliable operating system, hence if you want your information to 'expire' as the author in this emails describes, storing it on a Linux based platform is probably your best option; chances are, after a few days, weeks or months, the system will have irrecoverably crashed or lost the data due to a syntax error in a configuration file. Also, Linux is free, which is always good.
Maybe you could find something to do with your free time that is actually productive. I suppose at the very least you've given some call center employees something to talk about at lunch, so that's not so bad.
Wait... A Mexican STAYING in Mexico? This is unheard of!!
Yes I'm being an ass. Feel free to mod me down. I'm being an asshole and a coward, I'm posting anonymously for just that reason.
You forgot the other PINs in Mexico:
No, in America we use the free market system. Which means the system is free to market your data any way they want.
You mean in the Former America. In the new America, we have this 'Government' that will take care of this for us. If not, at least we'll get a handout in the process.
A technical college I attended in Arizona was slightly different.
Really? A technical college in AZ is different than MIT? Huh, imagine that.