Path: utzoo!telly!ziebmef!mcp
From: mcp@ziebmef.uucp (Marc Plumb)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: SIN Number
Keywords: SIN
Message-ID: <1988Dec23.024016.22054@ziebmef.uucp>
Date: 23 Dec 88 07:40:13 GMT
References: <302@idacom.UUCP> <723@apss.apss.ab.ca> <694@myrias.UUCP>
Reply-To: mcp@ziebmef.UUCP (Colin Plumb - borrowed account)
Distribution: can
Organization: Ziebmef Public Access Unix, Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 52

In article <694@myrias.UUCP> dbf@myrias.UUCP (David Ferrier) writes:
>Sorry, Herb, there are more than two occasions when you have to
>give out "your property". I can think of three more:
>
>1. Whenever you open a bank account, or purchase interest-bearing
>negotiable instruments (bonds, deposit certificates) the institution
>you are dealing with requires your SIN so they can report the interest.

There must be some loophole in this.  I know neither the bank at which
I have an account nor the one at which I recently cashed some CSB's
has a SIN for me.

>I dispute the assertion that a SIN is "property". It's an 
>identification number assigned by the government to an
>individual to help the government with its recordkeeping.
>When you were in school, was your locker number your property?
>Is your bank account number your property? Your VISA or
>Chargex account number certainly isn't your property - the
>banks make that quite clear.

The thing is that these things expire.  If I were to re-apply for
a replacement SuperDuperChargeACard, I'd get a new card number out of
the hat.  The SIN is a great thing to play Big Brother games with, since
it's guaranteed not to change.

But the only reason the government keeps records on me is to catch me if
I try to cheat on taxes.  So helping them keep these records verges on
self-incrimination.  (To be precise, if I *am* up to something, helping
them catch me is self-incrimination.)  So I try, pretty hard, to make
their lives difficult.  Not (necessarily :-}) becasue I have something
to hide, but becasue I'm not required to prove I don't.

>I don't understand what all the fuss is about giving out or
>not giving out your SIN.  What does it hurt? Who really
>cares? Evidently some do, or this exchange wouldn't have
>started in the first place. However, there is such a thing
>as playing your SIN too close to your chest.

Maybe I've just been reading too much comp.risks, but I simply don't
trust institutional databases.  Currently, I have two pieces of
identification: a birth certificate and a passport.  The passport I
find useful, and I don't know how to get a birth out of the records,
so I guess I'll have to live with it.

(Yes, I also hold a few membership cards for student organisations, but
most of those can be forged with a photocopier and coloured cardboard.)

"Paranoia makes the world go 'round - why do you keep going if they aren't
after you?" :-)
-- 
-- 
	-Colin