DogReader
Lockergnome
Home
Author Avatar

Stop Using Social Security Numbers

Why are Social Security numbers still being used as identifiers? - It seems that there are abundant data to show that governments, institutions, universities and a myriad of other agencies / facilities cannot secure data bases sufficiently. Here is the latest example:

“A laptop stolen during a recent blood drive contained sensitive information on 268,000 Minnesota-region blood donors, Memorial Blood Centers say.”

link: Stolen Laptop Contained Blood Donor Data

Now, the Memorial Blood Centers will stop using Social Security numbers as identifiers. Isn’t this a bit late? It is like ‘closing the barn door’ after all the livestock has been stolen.

The consequence is that over a quarter million Minnesota blood donors are at risk of identity theft. Their data can be sold and marketed. - Don’t expose your Social Security number unless it is absolutely necessary. It increases your financial risk significantly.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

What do you think?

Wayne - December 9, 2007 @ 2:54 pm

It’s to late to fix privacy , that’s why they let it go so long , so they can make money , now they are ging to protect for cash, their the ones who let your privacy out anyhow that was the plan.
Wake up America , can’t you see??
Just recentley your drivers license had your social security on them , now they changed that, and pretend that never was.
So where was the security then your country did that to ya!!

What are your thoughts?

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

All Comments and Trackbacks are moderated (unless you're a registered user). Regardless, this page will refresh when your submission is entered.

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-Spam Image