4 ms·

SSNs were never designed for, nor intended for, secrecy. They're names, not passcodes.

by fixermark 8y ago

m-p-3 8y ago
Like biometrics but worse.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
lotsofpulp 8y ago
Exactly, so creating a government website where one can verify someone's SSN would render it useless as a password and force businesses to come up with a real solution.
kozziollek 8y ago
There is great video about that by CGP Grey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erp8IAUouus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erp8IAUouus
jMyles 8y ago
SSNs were never designed for, nor intended as, identification. For years, social security cards bore the text "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" on the front. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/596180023/how-social-security-numbers-became-a-form-of-national-identification https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/596180023/how-social-security...
- andrewla 8y ago
  My understanding is that that warning applied to the card itself, not to the number. That is, the bearer of that card has no provable relationship to the social security number on the card as it contains no attestable information (like a photograph or general description) so the card cannot be used for identification. The number itself is of course used for identification from the beginning as a unique identifier for your "account" in the social security administration.
  - thefifthsetpin 8y ago
    The problem you see with using the card itself as identification of course also applies to using the number itself as identification.
  - jandrese 8y ago
    Also, the card has zero anti-forgery technology built into it. Anybody with a printer can make a near-perfect fake.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- wuliwong 8y ago
  > In order to make Social Security work, the government needed a way to identify every single worker and keep track of their earnings every single year for the rest of their lives. According to the article it seems that it was intended to be used for identification, just only for one purpose.

SSNs were never designed for, nor intended for, secrecy. They're names, not passcodes.

m-p-3 8y ago

Like biometrics but worse.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

lotsofpulp 8y ago

Exactly, so creating a government website where one can verify someone's SSN would render it useless as a password and force businesses to come up with a real solution.

kozziollek 8y ago

There is great video about that by CGP Grey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erp8IAUouus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erp8IAUouus

jMyles 8y ago

SSNs were never designed for, nor intended as, identification. For years, social security cards bore the text "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" on the front. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/596180023/how-social-security-numbers-became-a-form-of-national-identification https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/596180023/how-social-security...

andrewla 8y ago
My understanding is that that warning applied to the card itself, not to the number. That is, the bearer of that card has no provable relationship to the social security number on the card as it contains no attestable information (like a photograph or general description) so the card cannot be used for identification. The number itself is of course used for identification from the beginning as a unique identifier for your "account" in the social security administration.
- thefifthsetpin 8y ago
  The problem you see with using the card itself as identification of course also applies to using the number itself as identification.
- jandrese 8y ago
  Also, the card has zero anti-forgery technology built into it. Anybody with a printer can make a near-perfect fake.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
wuliwong 8y ago
> In order to make Social Security work, the government needed a way to identify every single worker and keep track of their earnings every single year for the rest of their lives. According to the article it seems that it was intended to be used for identification, just only for one purpose.