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From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: WordPerfect for students -- antisocial insecurity numbers
Message-ID: <3126@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Mon, 5-Oct-87 02:01:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.3126
Posted: Mon Oct  5 02:01:55 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Oct-87 04:41:10 EDT
References: <2138@utastro.UUCP> <607@rocky.STANFORD.EDU> <3054@hoptoad.uucp> <314@lamc.UUCP>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 20

dhawk@lamc.UUCP (David Hawkins) wrote:
> I would imagine they want your SS# so they can keep a record of who
> buys a copy at the discount.  You wouldn't want the same people 
> buying copies over and over, would you?  And according to this
> SS publication it is legal for them to ask for it...

But of course they have no way to verify it, since they don't have
access to your Social Security record, so you can just give them any
old number, and buy as many copies as you want.

It reminds me of the people who ask you to write your home phone number
on your credit card slips.  Clearly this procedure only helps catch the DUMB
credit card cheats!

When somebody asks me a personal question like those, my first response is
"why do you want to know" and my second is to make up a number at random.
I don't think it's illegal to give a private company a random number when
asked for your social security number (outside of a tax context).
-- 
{dasys1,ncoast,well,sun,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu			  gnu@toad.com