4 ms·
FYI: the TIN is a unique number associated to each person living in Germany. New born babies are getting a TIN faster than most of the congratulation cards... I
by Loic 11y ago
FYI: the TIN is a unique number associated to each person living in Germany. New born babies are getting a TIN faster than most of the congratulation cards... It is issued by the tax authorities and as a foreigner living in Germany you also get one.
- pjmlp 11y agoGermany is not alone. In Portugal usually you always need to present you ID card and Tax ID together when some form of identification is required. To the point that the actual ID cards (Ausweis) have the citizen ID, tax ID and social security ID all together.
- sasvari 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identity_number_(Sweden) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identity_number_(Swed...
- blah5432 11y agoResistance to ID is just an americanism. There are no practical negative consecuences and a lot of good ones. Identity is a right that government must warrant, not something dirty that should be buried.
- creshal 11y ago> Resistance to ID is just an americanism. I literally just explained how it's not. > There are no practical negative consecuences Assuming an ideal, benevolent government. (Presumably residing on an infinite frictionless plane, feasting on spherical cows.)
- jarman 11y agoGovernment will identify citizens anyway. It's not choice between ID and no ID, but between simple ID and ad-hoc scheme (Name/Surname/Birthdate/Residence composite, or issuing separate id for each institution). While IDs do have negative consequences, I see zero downside in replacing VATIN, passport number (linked list of "previous document" in worst case, down to birth certificate), army id number, employment record book number and "$surname $name $patronymic, born $birth_date at $birth_place, registered $registration_place" official title with single citizen ID.
- throwanem 11y agoCentralization and slack are inversely proportional. If everybody is reliably and unambiguously identified from birth by a single government-issued and -maintained key, and that government turns against its citizens (or is overthrown, compromised, et cetera), you're basically hosed.
- jarman 11y agoThat data is already centralized and interlinked. There is no 'slack' (ambiguity and leeway) as far as government is concerned. I am not arguing for using government-issued IDs for non-government services (as in original post), and consider enforcement of such use a direct attack on citizen freedom, but only for having single ID for use in state-person relations.
- creshal 11y ago> That data is already centralized and interlinked. Not in all countries. Germany used to have explicit laws against combining state and federal record bases, they were only recently eroded to "fight terrorism".
- blah5432 11y agoYou need to assume nothing. Your government is spying on everybody without an ID. Your explanation just doesn't qualify, sorry.
- jjgreen 11y agoSo why you create temporary accounts to comment?
- blah5432 11y agoBecause this lovely customer I'm working in MITMs the HTTPS. You know, it's so cool to read gmail on the phone. BTW, shame on Chrome for allowing it without a warning :-/ Firefox totally refused to connect.