Social Security Numbers

Obselete or not? Recently, a college was hacked and hackers took around 97,000 SSNs. I forgot which college it was, but the article said that SSNs can be used to: access bank accounts, open credit cards, and even have new driver's licenses printed.

Personally, I think it would be safer for PCs and Macs to come with some sort of chip-reading device, and have your own little microchip implanted in you, with scanners in all modern buildings which require an SSN.

Discuss?

 

Its your identity.

 

You don't exist without it.

 

ur idea about the scanners in every building....

dumb!
the econemy is bad enough, do you no how much it would cost to put chips in everyone and scanners in every building?!

 

I think that things such as SSNs should be as safe and secure as possible, since a stolen one could ruin someone's entire life.

As for the chip, I think implanting everyone which a chip would just be wierd and not a good idea.

 

Call me paranoia, but chips in my skin to identify me? Sounds alot like something that would occur in George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.

 

Why do you say that? We don't have SSNs in Australia and we do fine.

 

You don't exist in the US. I think we heavily rely on it for too much secure information, it's just too much responsibility.

 

They don't soly rely on SSNs, they use birth certificates also. Exact proof, not just the information on it.

 

Heh I agree... I don't want the government keeping tabs on me!

 

I think there should be something else than an 9 digit number. like a passport number, like i think it's about 25 characters

 

Yeah you can EASILY commit identity theft with a SSN. You can also use peoples credit and all too.

I like to stick to check washing though lmao. *cough*cough*

 

Chips? Why? So the government knows where you are and what your doing at every single moment of the day?

 

They can be used to access your bank accounts, i know that one. Whenever i go to the bank, they ask me for my SSN or my driver's license. They do not keep a picture on file, so you could be anyone. And after you get money, they just ask for a signature, which is easily fakeable.

Chips are not needed, because they would probably be used for different things, other than "identifying"you

 

lol they can't be obsolete, they are the only unique identifier of yourself, everything else is based off of SSN's

 

Well, I think they go back on the signatures to see if it matches the original card holders if their identity does get stolen. Not just to have a signature for the hell of it.

 

The chips are a terrible idea, if it did come into effect, I would get the fuck out of the US.

 

OP's idea = Nazi Germany
Dogs have chips implanted in them in case they are lost. Are we dogs?

 

Call me stupid, but chips in my skin? That would be just retarded lol.

 

If chips were a worldwide thing, that'd be pretty good to be honest. If you need to track a fugitive, just track the chip. Crime would go down SIGNIFICANTLY also because knowing you can no longer hide and also if chips can show where you were in the past, then WOW, crime would be almost unheard of because you just look at all the suspects and see who was at the scene at the time of the crime.

Then again, if the tracking gets in the wrong hands, it can be quite devastating - thats where checks and balances can come in though.