US government encourages lack of privacy
So much for the bill of rights.
The US treasury online site requires the treasury direct account number and recipients social security number to transfer bonds as a gift. This is fine if it is between family members, but what about as a gift from relatives and friends? Imagine telling relatives and friends your treasury account and social security number just so they can send a gift to your child?
One more piece of personal information has fallen into common use.
So, here’s a list of personal information that is pretty much handed out as public knowledge nowdays:
- Name (of course)
- birthday
- social security number
This information is still somewhat private (or at least hard to find – until ChoicePoint starts selling the information to anyone and everyone with a credit card):
- mother’s maiden name
- city of birth
- driver’s license number
- Passport #
And information that is less commonly asked for and may actually not be well known:
- favorite color
- pet’s name
- first model of car
It’s funny that online sites ask these information as additional authenticators and very well be more secure than those that rely just on social security number and mother’s maiden name.
The US government encourages lack of privacy by Daily Movement, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
April 6th, 2005 at 5:33 pm
Found you. Moo.
Now psb needs one.