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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!fortune!rpw3
From: rpw3@fortune.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: social security numbers - (nf)
Message-ID: <3241@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-May-84 04:02:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: fortune.3241
Posted: Sat May  5 04:02:50 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 6-May-84 01:32:41 EDT
Sender: notes@fortune.UUCP
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 44

#R:rabbit:-276900:fortune:39400010:000:2196
fortune!rpw3    May  4 21:27:00 1984

Unfortunately, Scott, SSN's fail miserably at being GOOD personal
identification numbers (PINs), even though they are a de-facto PIN
in many places. (E.g., my employer uses them for I.D badge numbers.)

1. They are NOT unique. They are "nearly" unique, but being a little
   non-unique is like being a little pregnant. I have talked to people
   who have discovered they "share" an SSN with someone else. (The names
   and addresses and all the other disambiguation material was different
   enough that the credit people never gave them any trouble, but see
   below.) Certain social groups (such as migrant workers) have higher
   rates of non-uniqueness than others. Shall we make the SSN yet another
   tool of repression?

2. The SSN has NO (repeat, NO) error-checking. There are NO check digits.
   There is NO way to tell if a given number is real or imaginary, without
   going to the local office of the SSA where the number supposedly was
   originally handed out (if said office still exists). If some one "guesses"
   your number (or randomly invents one), tough. (Even telephone cards are
   better than this!) I met a guy on a plane a couple of years back who was
   having lots of trouble with the IRS because someone had invented an SSN
   (to "report" some lucrative consulting income) that just happened to be the
   same as his.  They never caught the other guy, but the 1099's eventually
   stopped showing up at the IRS, so they quit hassling the person they could
   find (after several years), since he wasn't moonlighting.

3. Everybody doesn't have one. Unless you are employed (what about the ill?)
   (... the non-working spouse?) (... the under-aged child?) or have interest
   or investment income (what about the poor?) you may never get one.

4. Some people have more than one. They lose them, or "lose" them, or forget
   them, or just don't care. It's easy to get another one. Why bother? ;-}

Enough. If the U.S. wants to go down the PIN route, it should at least pick
a decent number.

Rob Warnock

UUCP:	{ihnp4,ucbvax!amd70,hpda,harpo,sri-unix,allegra}!fortune!rpw3
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