<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 2017-09-12 (255), at 15:39:37, Harald Koch <<a href="mailto:chk@pobox.com" class="">chk@pobox.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On 12 September 2017 at 14:23, erik <span dir="ltr" class=""><<a href="mailto:erik@erikgranger.name" target="_blank" class="">erik@erikgranger.name</a>></span> wrote:<br class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">So, here's a challenge for you guys if you're interested: Replace the social<br class="">
security number as a means of identification, and do it in such a way that<br class="">
meets some basic criteria.<br class=""></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Should probably start by researching what other countries do.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">For example, in Canada, a Social Insurance Number can only be used for interactions with the government. It cannot be asked for arbitrarily (including as part of a credit check), and it can't be used as a personal identifier (e.g. employee number, insurance customer ID, and so on).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">(There was a lot of trouble with that last one in the late 80s and early 90s before IT people got the message...)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Separate discussion; universal identifiers are bad…</div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div><div><br class=""></div><div>Note that the nine digit Canadian SIN (also the American one?) incorporates a one digit LUN check digit (like most if not all credit card numbers).</div><div><br class=""></div><div>You had to really protest hard against providing your SIN when opening a Bank account, to the extent of sending the Teller to their Manager.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Eventually you could fill in their forms with ”999 999 999” if you were adamant. Don’t know what it’s like these daze.</div><div>__outer</div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><br class=""></body></html>