From Social Security Number to Biometrics

It seems like everywhere you go someone is asking for your social security number.  On the front of older cards was printed a statement that read "For Social Security Purposes, Not For Identification". But when the government wanted to use the cart for identification purposes, they changed the rule.  Now the number is used by both government and private institutions as the primary means of identification.  It has been used for so often for so many things that lists of people and their social security numbers are common. This has proven to be a great benefit to identity thieves.

Now the U. S. Government is floating the idea of using a biometric ID rather than the ubiquitous SSN. This idea is not new. A program called National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace was launched in 2011. This biometric based system was only meant to be used for online identification. But with this announcement, it seems that what we are really talking about here is a national biometric ID database. Of course, no one wants to call it that.  As always, the government knows what is best for us.  And it probably won't be mandatory, unless of course you want to have income, buy, sell or participate in the economy in any way.

Is the end of Social Security numbers at hand?

We’ve all been warned not to use the same password for email, Facebook, and Amazon. But that is exactly what every American does when it comes to our financial lives. We rely on the same nine-digit password for everything from loans to taxes: Social Security numbers.

Having just one number is convenient, of course — especially to fraudsters. Right now attorneys general in Connecticut and Illinois are investigating a data breach at Experian EXPGY +1.76%   , one of the three major credit bureaus, that exposed the identification digits of more than 200 million Americans. To combat such crimes, experts say government agencies have begun to consider alternatives, including biometric scans.

When Social Security numbers were first issued nearly 80 years ago, they weren’t intended to be used as identification with tax men, employers and health-care providers. Yet now, 80% of the top 25 banks and 96% of the top credit card issuers allow people to access to an account if they have the correct Social Security number, according to a 2014 study by Javelin Strategy & Research.

The numbers were exposed in nearly 50% of data breaches in 2013, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. They can be hacked or tracked through keystrokes, and found on tax forms in snail mail or old records in dumpsters. It’s even possible to guess a Social Security number based on information from Facebook profiles, like hometowns and birth dates, Carnegie Mellon University researchers found in 2009.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/end-of-the-nine-digit-social-security-number-2014-04-09