this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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privacy
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Yeah, the SSN system is the stupidest freaking thing ever for all the crap we use it for. but trying to implement a better system is met with cries of "GOVERNMENT OVERREACH, COMMUNISTS! OH GOD IN HEAVEN, MUH RIGHTS!!!1!". So....we haven't really done anything about it, and probably won't in my lifetime.
It's unfortunate that SSN has come to be used as a form of proof of existence as a person, but I'm glad at least that more effective means of formally tracking and quantifying us have been successfully fought back. Banks, governments, service providers and employers having some friction and uncertainty in whether their database entry accurately corresponds to you is itself a valuable form of privacy.
I've been reading the book Seeing Like A State and I think it has some pretty good points about how civic legibility and record keeping is established as a tool of centralized control and can be a dangerous double edged sword.
Any tool that is misused can be harmful, that doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. It just means you should regulate how it's used.
The tool is not the problem, the user is.
Why do those numbers even exist? In my country we got ID cards and passports, plus some tax identifier that is used for social security and tax payments by our employer into the accounts, and that's that. All that's required for actual identification is a valid ID (including passport as long as you have a recent address registration). Their numbers change every 10 years, or you could apply to have it replaced earlier.
SSN isn't even meant to be used to verify identity, really. It's just supposed to be used to track people paying into the social security system. Somehow it got tied up in identity verification even though all it is is some essentially random number.