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Service members are uniquely vulnerable. They are employed by the government which makes them a target of hostile foreign powers, and they're often ordered to

Service members are uniquely vulnerable. They are employed by the government which makes them a target of hostile foreign powers, and they're often ordered to give away their personal information while in service often out of habit and not out any genuine need to have the service members SSN.

swells34 3y ago
All very correct, and to add to this as someone who's had direct consequences due to my information being sold: we have more sensitive personal information, and that information is more sensitive than that of an average civilian. The holy Grail of documents is the DD-214, which has every single piece of sensitive personal information a civilian has, all in one place, and we are REQUIRED to keep it indefinitely, to present it under a large number of circumstances. It's a complete identity package; full name, signature, photo, work history, residence history, dates, personal description, mother's maiden name, date of birth, location of birth, name of birth hospital and doctor. Then there's security clearance paperwork, which may be even worse, extensive un-redacted medical records, etc. All of these documents are viewed hundreds of times by hundreds of people during a military career, scanned, photocopied, emailed, printed, all without any sort of authorization or even knowledge by the service member. It's legitimately scary. And then after you're out, all of this information is managed by the VA by people who have nearly unrestricted access to it, and in my case along with thousands of others, put on a thumb drive and taken home and sold to a broker. It's a life ruiner.
- 23B1 3y ago
  You mean SF-86, not DD-214
- moandcompany 3y ago
  The SF-86 used in the US security clearance background investigation process is very personal information dense... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Form_86 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Form_86 The OPM data breach (2015) affected service members, civilian government employees, and other civilians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management...
libraryatnight 3y ago
Nothing you listed is unique to the military. The private sector is also the target of hostile foreign powers. The private sector is also made to feel obligated to give away more personal information that is likely necessary.
autoexec 3y ago
Unfortunately, thanks to surveillance capitalism, everyone is "uniquely vulnerable". You can never know which of the billions of data points that make up your dossier could make someone target you. Your political views, your religion, your employer, your sexual preferences, your genetics, any of it, however inaccurate or outdated, can make you a target to someone and all that data never goes away. Hostile foreign powers are a problem, but so are hostile domestic extremists along with a large population of the mentally ill who over the last century have gone from being abused to being ignored, which means that while most of the mentally ill are harmless, nobody is keeping an eye on the ones who aren't. Not even after they get repeatedly reported to authorities by concerned family members (Robert Card, Ethan Crumbley, Orlando Harris, etc).

swells34 3y ago

All very correct, and to add to this as someone who's had direct consequences due to my information being sold: we have more sensitive personal information, and that information is more sensitive than that of an average civilian. The holy Grail of documents is the DD-214, which has every single piece of sensitive personal information a civilian has, all in one place, and we are REQUIRED to keep it indefinitely, to present it under a large number of circumstances. It's a complete identity package; full name, signature, photo, work history, residence history, dates, personal description, mother's maiden name, date of birth, location of birth, name of birth hospital and doctor. Then there's security clearance paperwork, which may be even worse, extensive un-redacted medical records, etc. All of these documents are viewed hundreds of times by hundreds of people during a military career, scanned, photocopied, emailed, printed, all without any sort of authorization or even knowledge by the service member. It's legitimately scary. And then after you're out, all of this information is managed by the VA by people who have nearly unrestricted access to it, and in my case along with thousands of others, put on a thumb drive and taken home and sold to a broker. It's a life ruiner.

23B1 3y ago
You mean SF-86, not DD-214
moandcompany 3y ago
The SF-86 used in the US security clearance background investigation process is very personal information dense... - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Form_86 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Form_86 The OPM data breach (2015) affected service members, civilian government employees, and other civilians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management...

libraryatnight 3y ago

Nothing you listed is unique to the military. The private sector is also the target of hostile foreign powers. The private sector is also made to feel obligated to give away more personal information that is likely necessary.

autoexec 3y ago

Unfortunately, thanks to surveillance capitalism, everyone is "uniquely vulnerable". You can never know which of the billions of data points that make up your dossier could make someone target you. Your political views, your religion, your employer, your sexual preferences, your genetics, any of it, however inaccurate or outdated, can make you a target to someone and all that data never goes away. Hostile foreign powers are a problem, but so are hostile domestic extremists along with a large population of the mentally ill who over the last century have gone from being abused to being ignored, which means that while most of the mentally ill are harmless, nobody is keeping an eye on the ones who aren't. Not even after they get repeatedly reported to authorities by concerned family members (Robert Card, Ethan Crumbley, Orlando Harris, etc).