How Face Recognition Can Uncover SSNs

nonprofiteer writes "Building on previous work showing that social security numbers are not random, CMU researchers ran experiments in which they predicted students' social security numbers after taking a photo of them with a cheap webcam. Using off-the-shelf facial recognition technology and data-mining publicly available Facebook photos and profile information, they were able to come up with the social security numbers of several of the students. (More impressive, as they note that 60% of the students were foreign, and had no SSNs, leaving them a pool of less than 50)."

Comments

But SSNs aren't identifiers!

[Baloroth]

This isn't a problem: the government promised that SSNs would never be used as ID numbers! They even printed it on early SSN cards. So no one could use this for identity theft, right? Right? I mean, that'd mean the government broke its promise when it instituted the Social Security program. It's just like how the program could never go broke, even though it's a pay-as-you-go system. After all, there will always be more workers than retired people, even if people retire early... wait, abortion, birth control, and increased lifespan mean that there aren't enough young people to pay for retirement? So where's the money going to come from? I'm certainly not going to be paying 3-4 times what I am now in 30 years, right? That could never happen either. After all, the government always keeps it promises and plans carefully to fulfill its obligations...

HAHAHAHAH, sorry, couldn't write that with a straight face.