4 ms·
I started "working" a few hours a week teaching programming at my kids' school. When they put me on the payroll I was astounded by the number of forms I had to
by patja 11y ago
I started "working" a few hours a week teaching programming at my kids' school. When they put me on the payroll I was astounded by the number of forms I had to fill out. I counted 15 forms requiring my signature, no less than 5 of which required my SSN.
Lo and behold, there was a data breach of employee and volunteer records. Volunteers had to have background checks, which required the SSN. Thousands of people had their IRS return hijacked due to this breach. I personally know dozens of people who were impacted.
From what I've seen of their information security, I remain completely unsurprised that they had this breach and that to this date they have no idea how it happened.
- josu 11y agoYou can look at it from the other side too, maybe Americans are putting too much weight on the SSN. I could practically post my Spanish ID number next to my name online and nothing would probably happen. As a matter of fact, a stupid regional government agency posted it next to my name in 2011 and it's been up ever since.
- joering2 11y agoIf you properly protect your security number, which requires some monthly commitment (such as $15 lifelock, or freecreditreport $5 per month), you can pretty much post your SSN online and really not much will happen. Any time someone uses it, you will get the alert and chance to act (stop the inquiry before it hit hard). It just that most people believe that not making their SSN public is enough for it to be safe.
- jfuhrman 11y agoDon't think lifelock will prevent fraudulent tax returns.
- ohitsdom 11y agoThe CEO of Lifelock posted his SSN in several ad campaigns to tout the effectiveness of Lifelock. And, surprise, his identity was "stolen" 13 times[0]. [0] http://www.wired.com/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/ http://www.wired.com/2010/05/lifelock-identity-theft/
- __z 11y ago1) There are free sites to monitor your credit such as Credit Karma. No need to pay hundreds a year. They even send out emails whenever you open up a new line of credit. Lifelock is a huge scam and has been fined by the FTC. 2) Just being alerted when someone else opens up credit in your name is hardly "protection." They still opened up credit in your name and you have to deal with that which is at the very very least inconvenient. 3) Posting you SSN online makes products more expensive for everyone because companies at the very least have to devote extra man hours every time someone else tries to take out credit in your name. Even if nothing happens to you they may have already issued a loan to the person and now has to write that off. 4) This is about fraudulent tax returns which credit monitoring companies wouldn't have info on. I've had my identity stolen and I can tell you,it is truly awful.
- klipt 11y ago> I've had my identity stolen and I can tell you,it is truly awful. You and half of America. You know how many people are in Anthem's system?
- userbinator 11y agoPossible solution: require everyone to generate and register (in-person) public keys, which tax returns need to be signed with.
- rjaco31 11y agoIt's even more of an hassle for your average user because he cannot change computer anymore to fill taxes, it has already been tried & dropped.