Re: Secrecy: My life as a nym. (Was: nym blown?)

["Kyle Rogers" <keroger@odin.cmp.ilstu.edu>]

In this post you talk about SSN web pages?  I was wondering if someone
could post a URL to one?

thanks

MaINLinE

----------
> From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>
> To: Timothy C. May <tcmay@got.net>
> Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
> Subject: Re: Secrecy: My life as a nym. (Was: nym blown?)
> Date: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 2:51 PM
> 
> On Tue, 12 Nov 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
> 
> > At 8:26 AM -0800 11/11/96, Hal Finney wrote:
> > 
> > >I have two kids entering their teens, and I'm sure other list members
are
> > >parents as well.  What can we do for our children to help them enter
their
> > >adult lives with better chances to retain privacy?  Unicorn mentions
keeping
> > >them absent from school on picture day, although I'm not sure how much
this
> > >helps.  I suppose it makes it harder for an investigator to find out
what
> > >they look(ed) like.  Then when they get old enough to drive you have a
new
> > >problem avoiding the photo (and thumbprint) on the license.
> > >
> > >Are there other measures which parents could take while their children
are
> > >young to get them off to a good start, privacy-wise?
> > 
> > I think there are two important domains of privacy to distinguish:
> > 
> > 1. The mundane.
> > 
> > 2, The political.
> > 
> > The mundane domain is what most people think of initially, Things like
"How
> > do I keep my name out of the system?" Or the point about kids.
> > 
> > The fact is, hundreds of millions of names are obviously--and almost
> > unavoidably--in the mundane public sector. I say "almost unavoidably"
> > because driver's licenses and social security numbers are ubiquitous.
> > 
> > (Side note: Jim McCoy's suggestion that kids can be kept off the
> > parental-unit's tax returns and thus not get a SS number is fraught
with
> > problems. Many schools--including public schools--use the SS number for
> > various internal and tracking reasons. Even if the kid is free of SS
> > numbers until he's a teenager--at a cost of thousands of dollars a year
in
> > IRS deductions not taken--he'll essentially have to have an SS number
in
> > his high school years, for a variety of reasons. Maybe this can be
avoided,
> > but I doubt the reward is worth the hassles.)
> 
> Personally, I suggest that the dependent be identified with an erronious
> SSN number.  If the dependent exists it is hard to make a fraud case and
> the deductions are usually allowed anyhow.
> 
> I'm not sure what "a variety of reasons" in the highschool years is.  As
> for hastles, I can't think of what they might be, other than going to the
> SSN web page to construct a properly formatted number which the SSA will
> report as "Issued" (as opposed to "Unissued").  This is one of the few
> pieces of information that is given out.
> 
> Again, DMVs cannot check to see that the number matches the name, only if
> it was issued and if the first three digits correspond to location where
> the number was supposedly "issued" from.  (If not one can always claim to
> have lived in the state that DID issue that number).
> 
> > The second category is that of the political domain. If a person can
> > separate himself from the comments he makes, as Alois^H^H^H^H^H Black
> > Unicorn has done, then it hardly matters--in an important sense--that
his
> > True Name has a SS number on file somewhere.
> 
> I disagree.
> The lack of a social security number makes the first part easier.  They
> are most certainly connected in the research into the few clues that will
> have to slip out, will not lead back to any fact which can be later used
> to narrow down the field.  (The first three numbers of a SSN for
example).
> 
> > This is an important distinction in discussing privacy, I think. If I
had a
> > rug rat, I doubt I'd go to great lengths to avoid getting him or her an
SS
> > number. If the Feds offered me a yearly savings of $1000 or more on my
> > taxes, I'd take it.
> 
> Pity, but still, you can avoid it without sacrificing the dependent
> deduction.
> 
> > (Given that it's almost an inevitability that the kid would have to
"enter
> > the system" at about the age where it really begins to matter, e.g, the
age
> > at which he or she begins to have political beliefs.)
> 
> I don't understand why this is so.  Perhaps I missed a link in the chain
> here?
> 
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