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Sorry, not from the US. Why the social security number is so private and must be treated carefully? I always thought it was like your tax number ID
by 101008 3y ago
Sorry, not from the US. Why the social security number is so private and must be treated carefully? I always thought it was like your tax number ID
- easton 3y agoIt is your tax ID number, but a lot of companies use it as a secret identifier for you since they are (supposed) to be unique. So if you call your bank and they need to prove who they are talking to they ask for it, for instance.
- rsyring 3y agoBecause many financial organizations in the US use it for authentication purposes. The risk is identity theft, essentially.
- sokoloff 3y agoTo answer GP's (presumed) followup questions: No, that is not a typo. Yes, it's exactly as stupid as it sounds.
- rz2k 3y agoIt can be used to apply for credit. You would think that lenders should be on the hook for handing out money to the wrong person, but they’ve framed accepting uniquely identifying personal information like ssn, or date of birth with postal code, as conducting business with an entire identity that has been misappropriated.
- nuancebydefault 3y agoIt is a bit weird that lenders ask you for your "private key". If it is private, how can they even look up if it is you who shows them this number?
- rz2k 3y agoThese unique personally identifying bits of information are not private keys. Private keys on the other hand can remain secret even when someone is confirming their validity. To oversimplify a little, the way it works is that the private key is input into a one-way algorithm that generates an output they check against their saved values. If the output matches twice then they know you have the same key as the one you used in the past. They cannot used the output of a one-way algorithm to discover what the input was that generated said output.