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Elon Musk may have your Social Security number
(nymag.com)
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this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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Just to culture shock Americans: it's not exactly the same but in Sweden our personal numbers are kept in the open. Even online. Searchable databases with names, phone numbers, addresses etc. It tells you if someone has a dog. It tells you if they have a car. Which car, even. Some tell you the income of the person you're searching for. Sites even exist that could tell you if I've commited a crime. Some people think that's unreasonable. Irresponsible even!
That said, as pertains to the article, the fact that he has that info seems pretty unreasonable and irresponsible.
At least in the past, you could use a person's ssn to open credit cards, change utilities, and generally ruin someone's life. Someone took out a credit card with my SSN when I was like 9 or 10 and it caused issues when I became an adult and tried to get a student loan for uni.
That is technically possible with our information too. It happens, but is bothersome. Taking out massive loans is possible too, with the right bank on the right day.
You'd need some way to verify the identity, but since such signatures are handled digitally through an app it's just a good phishing call away really. You already have the phone number and the address if you have the personal identification number.