4 ms·

Apparently, the SSNs were all embedded directly in the HTML file. Like … what?

plainnoodles 5y ago
</tr> I don't find it TOO much of a stretch.... (I don't know what it actually looked like in the html, just saying I could see it happening pretty easily)
Bluecobra 5y ago
When I was a student at DeVry University (a national for-profit college with 40 campuses) your SSN was your student ID. This wasn’t corrected until 2002 or 2003. :(
- nostrademons 5y ago
  Your SSN was your driver's license number in 29 states until 2004, when Bush outlawed the practice. Many, many institutions in the USA are built on it being a high-trust society. Now that it's falling into a low-trust state, we can expect those institutions to fail, and perhaps the state to as well.
  - Infernal 5y ago
    > Many, many institutions in the USA are built on it being a high-trust society. Now that it's falling into a low-trust state, we can expect those institutions to fail, and perhaps the state to as well. Not enough people understand this, but I'm encouraged whenever I hear from those who do.
    - jkepler 5y ago
      This raises the question of how we start planning now to build more appropriate institutions to avoid societal failure.
      - nostrademons 5y ago
        Locally, generally. Remember Gall's Law: "A complex system that works is inevitably found to have evolved from a simple system that works." Also much easier to rebuild trust in a smaller community. I'd kinda love to blog about blue-sky social theories, but I suspect that without grounding in actual working social systems, they would remain theories.
  - handrous 5y ago
    They weren't supposed to be used as any kind of important, general ID number. It took various governments and institutions a long time to wake up to the reality that, because we really, really need such an ID and the government has displayed no intention of ever creating one, social security numbers had been forced into the role by necessity.
  - not2b 5y ago
    Kind of a nitpick, but presidents don't outlaw things. Laws passed by Congress do that, and you're right, it was in 2004. Bush signed the law, but it passed by a huge majority. https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/legis_bulletin_010705.html https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/legis_bulletin_010705.html
    - nostrademons 5y ago
      I'd initially phrased it "Bush signed a bill that outlawed...", which is much more correct, but is also an awkward sentence construction to read. Figured people would understand what I meant. ...this is also an apropos discussion for this topic, where the Missouri governor is framing this discussion in a way that's technically false but is going to score points with his constituents.
  - menage 5y ago
    Using your SSN for your driver's license would have been fine in a society where the SSN wasn't also being treated by banks etc. as a way to authenticate you for credit/loans/accounts.
- xxpor 5y ago
  This was common at many schools.
  - tmm 5y ago
    My high school rolled out an ID system in 1998 using SSNs printed on every ID (staff and students). About a week later, they realized this was a bad idea and reissued 1000+ IDs without the SSN. I still don’t know what the point of the ID cards was. They were just laminated paper, no RFID, magstripe, or barcode to open doors or to buy things from the cafeteria or school store. You didn’t need it to check out books from the library and no one ever asked to see it. And we got a new one every year. I guess some vendor convinced the school that they needed ID cards and so they got them.
- qorrect 5y ago
  Irving Campus ? I was there for those years.
alexjplant 5y ago
If they were using a server-side rendering framework then what probably happened is that they used HTML comments instead of template engine comments to "remove" the SSN <td />s without understanding the ramifications.

</tr> I don't find it TOO much of a stretch.... (I don't know what it actually looked like in the html, just saying I could see it happening pretty easily)

Bluecobra 5y ago

When I was a student at DeVry University (a national for-profit college with 40 campuses) your SSN was your student ID. This wasn’t corrected until 2002 or 2003. :(

nostrademons 5y ago
Your SSN was your driver's license number in 29 states until 2004, when Bush outlawed the practice. Many, many institutions in the USA are built on it being a high-trust society. Now that it's falling into a low-trust state, we can expect those institutions to fail, and perhaps the state to as well.
- Infernal 5y ago
  > Many, many institutions in the USA are built on it being a high-trust society. Now that it's falling into a low-trust state, we can expect those institutions to fail, and perhaps the state to as well. Not enough people understand this, but I'm encouraged whenever I hear from those who do.
  - jkepler 5y ago
    This raises the question of how we start planning now to build more appropriate institutions to avoid societal failure.
    - nostrademons 5y ago
      Locally, generally. Remember Gall's Law: "A complex system that works is inevitably found to have evolved from a simple system that works." Also much easier to rebuild trust in a smaller community. I'd kinda love to blog about blue-sky social theories, but I suspect that without grounding in actual working social systems, they would remain theories.
- handrous 5y ago
  They weren't supposed to be used as any kind of important, general ID number. It took various governments and institutions a long time to wake up to the reality that, because we really, really need such an ID and the government has displayed no intention of ever creating one, social security numbers had been forced into the role by necessity.
- not2b 5y ago
  Kind of a nitpick, but presidents don't outlaw things. Laws passed by Congress do that, and you're right, it was in 2004. Bush signed the law, but it passed by a huge majority. https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/legis_bulletin_010705.html https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/legis_bulletin_010705.html
  - nostrademons 5y ago
    I'd initially phrased it "Bush signed a bill that outlawed...", which is much more correct, but is also an awkward sentence construction to read. Figured people would understand what I meant. ...this is also an apropos discussion for this topic, where the Missouri governor is framing this discussion in a way that's technically false but is going to score points with his constituents.
- menage 5y ago
  Using your SSN for your driver's license would have been fine in a society where the SSN wasn't also being treated by banks etc. as a way to authenticate you for credit/loans/accounts.
xxpor 5y ago
This was common at many schools.
- tmm 5y ago
  My high school rolled out an ID system in 1998 using SSNs printed on every ID (staff and students). About a week later, they realized this was a bad idea and reissued 1000+ IDs without the SSN. I still don’t know what the point of the ID cards was. They were just laminated paper, no RFID, magstripe, or barcode to open doors or to buy things from the cafeteria or school store. You didn’t need it to check out books from the library and no one ever asked to see it. And we got a new one every year. I guess some vendor convinced the school that they needed ID cards and so they got them.
qorrect 5y ago
Irving Campus ? I was there for those years.

alexjplant 5y ago

If they were using a server-side rendering framework then what probably happened is that they used HTML comments instead of template engine comments to "remove" the SSN <td />s without understanding the ramifications.