Comment by EvanAnderson 12 hours ago
It'll be treated just as stupidly as Social Security numbers, and soon we'll have biometric data breaches. >sigh<
Aside: Social Security numbers should be public now, too. That ship sailed a long time ago and it should be recognized.
Just for the record, I think it’s a crazy idea to make things like DNA or fingerprints public. But a social security number is different. It’s wild how in the US, if someone gets hold of your number, they can do so many things with it. I’m from Sweden, and here we have a similar number called a personal identification number. The last digits are not secret but still sensitive. You can actually Google and find out almost anyone’s number if you want to, and it’s used for similar purposes. But it wouldn’t be enough to cause serious harm just by knowing someone’s number. Identity theft happens here too, but for a company it’s not much different from someone just having your name. It’s still a pain, but it’s nothing like in the US where your life can basically fall apart if someone gets your social security number.
Classic take on "identity theft":
poor netsec aside, at least I don't leave my social security number lying around every time I touch a door knob.
Hey now, at least I'm able to change my social security number and passwords.
Good luck changing eyes.
Changing your social security number is only slightly easier. Okay, maybe that's hyperbole. But having your SSN exposed isn't a good enough to be able to change it. You have to show it is actively being abused, and you can't address the problems another way.
What if people just publicized their own social security number, and then whenever they had to deal with "identity theft", they just pointed out that their SSN is public information and so it was negligent for the company to believe it was them just because of a SSN.