From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Fri Jun 9 19:29:24 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k5A1TOjb006022; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:29:24 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k5A1TOEh026665 for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:29:24 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k59MrgFI018968 for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 18:53:42 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k59MrgLd018967 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 18:53:42 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k59FcvFI012370 for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 11:39:02 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k59IENrv026898 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 12:14:23 -0600 X-Envelope-From: glen@glentodd.net Fri Jun 9 12:14:23 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k59IENjb026889 for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 12:14:23 -0600 Received: from mx1.warpdrive.net (mta43.warpdrive.net [24.56.130.43]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k59IEF7c019629 for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 12:14:16 -0600 Received: from smtp-1 (mta1-2.warpdriveonline.com [24.56.130.8]) by mx1.warpdrive.net (Spam Firewall) with ESMTP id B130DD00B59B for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 14:14:09 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mail1.warpdriveonline.com (mail.warpdriveonline.com [24.56.136.181]) by smtp-1 (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k59J7bYw026896 for ; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 15:07:37 -0400 Received: from [24.56.181.38] (account glentodd@warpdriveonline.com HELO groucho) by mail1.warpdriveonline.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.3.7) with ESMTPA id 25490817 for ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com; Fri, 09 Jun 2006 14:35:40 -0400 From: "Glen Todd" To: Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] San Diego TV station seeks to have government censor SSDI Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 12:12:32 -0600 Message-ID: <031901c68bf0$47ad4ef0$0101a8c0@HighReaches.local> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: <200606091726.k59HQUBC001356@lists5.rootsweb.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2869 Thread-Index: AcaL8CZxZJjmSakgQ1u4QSPQn1QSvQAAcgkA X-Virus-Scanned: by Barracuda Spam Firewall at warpdrive.net X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] San Diego TV station seeks to have > government censor SSDI > > I understand the concern about the quality of the reporting and the > information relayed to the public. But how is information in the SSDI > a tool in preventing identity theft? Well, a number that's in there is somebody that's dead, so if the same number subsequently showed up in an application for something, that should generate a large red flag. > Also, identity theft is the buzz word these days, and if it IS true > that unscrupulous people could find use for the SS #'s in their > thievery, then I can easily see it being removed. To be quite honest, > I haven't found much value in the SSDI itself other than finding death > dates, which I've rarely found there anyway (since most of my I don't entirely agree with that. The date can be useful, and also the state where the number was issued - although this can be confusing, since it doesn't always correlate with what one might think that it does. For instance, I was born in Connecticut of a Massachusetts family, but my SSN was issued in Virginia. (Even as recently as 1970, I didn't need a SSN until I enlisted in the Marines.) If they really wanted to secure things, they could just star out the last three or four digits in the public listings. That would give enough information to confirm the identity without being 'liftable'. That could be done without touching the database itself at all, but just the display code. That way also a full number could be entered and checked, but numbers couldn't be browsed. Glen