Subtle Rantings

Here is another reason why I never give out my SSN if I can absolutely help it: Stolen Computer Holds Government Data on 1.4M Coloradans

The government is notorious for asking for Social Security Numbers. Some applications make a little sense while others make no sense at all. Of course, the privacte sector isn’t any better. The only difference is, at least I have better odds of suing a commercial company than I do trying to go after “the Man”. If more people would actually give a rip about privacy and identity theft and start bucking the system when everyone and their mother asks for a SSN, then things might actually change. Instead, people just accept the idea that there is nothing they can do about it, so they just buy Identify Theft insurance along with Home and Auto now.

My favorite still to this day is when my wife went to the tanning salon and they had a spot for you to fill in your SSN on the first time client sheet. Seriously, a tanning salon? You need my Social because why? Having trained my wife in my ultra paranoia, show left it blank just to see what they said. They didn’t say a word and she still was able to tan.

On a separate note, I really, really want to start a timeline or a database of data breaches and the amount of personally identifiable information that gets leaked. I just don’t know what form I would do it in. Do I create a web app? Do I just keep a Word doc on my computer, or some static HTML file. Any suggestions from anyone out there?

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