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X is working on ID verification, what’s next?
(lemmy.world)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Over the years this has become more invasive. We didn't have to hand over our I'd for scanning potentially into a permanent record to do things. A quick proof of age was all people cared about for those things inappropriate for minors.
It's illegal to ask for your SSN, yet it happens all the time and we have no recourse if we refuse.
We're being desensitized to the invasion of privacy to the point we don't care any more. I think that is the goal. Death by 1000 pricks.
But your SSN is private and you shouldn't give it out or show it except in very rare instances.
What information on a driver's license is private? Your address? Your eye color? Your birthday?
All those bits of information are caller personally identifiable information (PII) and are protected by law for anything involving health and financial data.
In it's old form, the license isn't a huge problem because people can't use it to clear your accounts, fraudulently open credit cards, take out loans.
All of those are trivial with the SSN, combined with a few of the above data points.
Now, however, in America the drivers license is becoming required to be a full homeland security certified ID equal to or more important than the passport.
It is encoded with all your vitals and readable by a quick scan. With your full name, age, birthdate, address, height, weight, and eye color combined with the SSN, you are screwed if shady players have that.
Drivers license number is very frequently used for identity verification purposes or gates away access to essential government benefits. It’s personal information; as evidenced by the fact that it’s definitionally covered by literally every states data breach notification laws and the handful of state consumer privacy laws that exist.
Yes, except you give that card to all sorts of people, right? So it is really private? Identifying, yes, but private?
In the digital age, absolutely.