Nathan's Occasional Blog

Kiss your old SSN goodbye | Perspectives | CNET News.com:

“Politicians are starting to realize that permitting data brokers like Acxiom and ChoicePoint to buy and sell your Social Security number like a raffle ticket may not be that wise after all.”

Finally someone is starting to realize that the purvasive use of the SSN is a BAD thing. “They” keep telling us to protect our social security number, but then we have to give up our SSN just to sign up for cable TV? I’ve already stopped giving out my phone number to local merchants who say “we just try to track where our sales are from.” Fine, I say as I rattle off my zip code. Heck, my phone number is through Vonage and is on a Bellevue, WA exchange that’s 30 minutes (and a few microclimates) away from my residence so it’s pretty pointless for them as a location tool anyway. Why do they want your phone number? Revenue stream: they sell it to telemarketers. Bastards.

Another tip from one of our friends who was the object of credit card fraud a year or so ago … don’t pass along full credit card numbers to local merchants. She had someone take her full credit card and expiration date off of a restaurant sales slip she had signed and left on the table (how often have you done this). Unfortunately someone got ahold of that slip and purchased over a $1000 of stuff in Texas (while she was here in Seattle). Most merchants “x-out” the majority of your card number, leaving just the last 4 numbers. If you see a receipt with all the numbers printed black all but the last 4 out with your pen.

Maybe we should just build a bomb shelter under our back yard and live in there for the next 20 years with no contact with the outside world… nah, I’d miss Grey’s Anatomy. 🙂