Getting very frustrated with ID theft

[pointreyes]

I keep track and report news items at work related to security. As of late it seems that each week I have at least 2 to 3 articles on yet another data disclosure of people's information and normally the SSN is involved.

This is getting insane. Hellllllooooooooo people - stop storing and/or disposing important data in ways that discloses this information. ID theft is more of a problem thanks to morons that simply don't handle the information in a serious matter. And why must the SSN be used so much? Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh.

I have a credit rating in the top 2% and thanks to Wells Fargo, my credit might be affected. Nice to know that me being careful means squat.

Inform the people to be careful with their identity is all we hear but it appears that the business places are constantly screwing around with our identities.

Just to give you feel of what type of crap is going on:
Downtown Stayton fruitful for ID theives
Wells Fargo mortgage discloses data theft
Stolen laptop had bank data of 50,000
AICPA loses hard drive with member data
Key data on millions of veterans stolen

Every single one of those stories involve the SSN!
To the morons

[Skippman]

I remember a while back a Boeing HR executive lost his laptop. On the laptop was an unencrypted access database containing the personel records of over 50,000 Boeing employees. Boeing didn't fire the HR executive and the companies response to all those effected was this.

"We'll pay for a years worth of credit score monitoring."

And that's a defense contracter. <sigh>

[infinitevalence]

the part that pisses me off, is when i ask to use another identifier, like the law explicitly says i can request, they flat out tell me nope our system only takes SSN's sorry. So its SSN or no service. Thanks so much congress for keeping your promis.

[Skippman]

I would like to point out that at no point did the United States Congress or any other federal level of government state your Social Secuirty number could not be used to track you. The only thing it does state is that you cannot use your Social Security Card as proof of identity as it contains no photograph. Please, know your Federal rights. People today assume they have more right to privacy than they do.

[stev]

How do you feel when your identity is stolen?

[T-Shirt]

I would like to point out that at no point did the United States Congress or any other federal level of government state your Social Secuirty number could not be used to track you. The only thing it does state is that you cannot use your Social Security Card as proof of identity as it contains no photograph. Please, know your Federal rights. People today assume they have more right to privacy than they do.

I believe the original SS act did prohibit it's use for anything other than SS/employer payment use (people where afraid of "national ID's" back then too.)
at somepoint during the late 70's early 80's it was added to a SS reform bill as a permisable/legitimate common ID number intended to coordinate employer/SS and goverment benifits, over time most finacial instatutions, government, and other businesses adopted it as the standard ID number and began printing and distributing it on every document as a tracking #.
between 2002-4 many states inact laws prohibiting unnessasry distribution of your SS# but few/none prohibit it's use as a primary tracking # some states still use it as your drivers liecense #
public schools and universities are required to use it on your records by federal regulations,

http://www.epic.org/privacy/ssn/
what is really scary is how slowly government is in moving towards a prohibition of any use not directly releated to SS/other government benifits, even some large companies are beginning to see this as enough of a threat to begin removing it as a form of ID EXcept where required, and a protected/personal piece of Personel info.
ID theft now effects at least 1 million persons per year.[/url]

[Skippman]

I don't doubt that ID theft is rampet, and I am a backer of EFF.ORG but still, you basically have no reason to assume your SSN number will not be used to track you. Also, you have no Constitutional right to privacy. Only against illegal search and seizure and more indirectly, against quartering soldiers.

People act suprised and outraged when they hear that thier so called "right to privacy" has been invaded. You have no right to privacy. If the government has a decent reason to monitor you, legally they can. The key is to do nothing warrenting suspision and backing laws and reforendums that prohibit the govenrment from invasion of privacy.

The NSA has been in existance since 1941 in one form or another. The governement has only officially recognized it since 1985. Domestic survillence is a big deal these days. Until a bill is passed to ammend the constitution the laws will remain grey on what is and is not permissible.

[stev]

We depend tooooo much on computers and digital media. We can't turn back.

The more we use these electronics beasts, the more they store information about us.

It's another reason why I do not use GMail.