America Keeps Rejecting an ID Card It Already Has
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN reaches for it in every identity theft and data breach thread as the clearest, most enjoyable short explainer of why SSNs make bad identifiers.
What it is
CGP Grey explains the history of the US Social Security card and number, and why they became a de facto national ID despite never being meant for it. He also covers why America resists a proper identity card.
Recommended by 14 HN commenters across 9 different months, 2017 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec bmelton · 2017-09 · on “The Equifax breach may be the worst leak of personal info ever”
For anyone who wants an explanation at just how bad the social security number really is, this is the most enjoyable explanation for it I've seen, by CGP Grey [this video]
Strong rec sagitariusrex · 2017-09 · on “The Equifax Breach Exposes America's Identity Crisis”
For everybody who isn't acquainted with how Social Security Cards work in the US and how they came to be I highly recommend watching "Social Security Cards Explained" by CGP Grey [this video] He also explains why US citizens don't have an Identity Card as opposed to many European countries.
Recommends mjevans · 2017-04 · on “Men Without Work”
Don't blame the immigrants, blame those who are fully or partly paying under the table. Of course, would you support a national ID card as a means of combating this variable you accuse? In the US we pretty much have such a thing already, just without any proper security or identification aspects... [this video] (A short (< 8 min) video by the ever informative CGP Grey on the inanity of US SS cards.)
Recommends alehul · 2017-09 · on “Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information”
The SSN was never intended as a national ID. It was originally created alongside the Social Security Administration, to track what individuals put in and what they take out. People only received one upon becoming employed. Over time, the IRS realized that it could be used as a national ID, and adopted it for that purpose. They encouraged people to obtain one from a young age (even for their newborn children), and it was used to replace the original 'honor system' of 'How many children do you have?' tax discounts; now they'd need to register their child with a SSN. Companies eventually began piggybacking on the number as a national identifier (due to our lack of one), and voila. We're left wi
Recommends SimbaOnSteroids · 2017-09 · on “Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information”
You're right it was never meant to be a unique identifier, we need a national identification card, link to a video about it. [this video]
Recommends vec · 2017-09 · on “Stop Calling it ‘Identity Theft’”
CGP Gray did a really good video[1] about this recently. The short version is that it's the least terrible mechanism presently available for uniquely identifying and disambiguating American citizens. [1] [this video]
Recommends Qub3d · 2017-11 · on “Senators push to ditch social security numbers in light of Equifax hack”
Here's a relevant pop science video by CGP Grey[0] that explains all the various problems with SSNs. My favorite part is the fact that until quite recently (2011) you could decrement or increment a given SSN by 1 and get another valid SSN, since they were sequential. [0]: [this video]
Recommends ocdtrekkie · 2019-07 · on “FTC Approves Roughly $5B Facebook Settlement”
Actually, the SSN is an account number, solely intended for tracking money paid into and paid out of an account. It isn't meant for identification, and the method it's used for identification is terrible. (Largely: If you know the number, you are identified.) It's treated like a secret, but as a 9-digit number you give to dozens of organizations in your life which follows a predictable and partially guessable pattern, it is an absolutely terrible secret. Absolutely good explainer video about how this travesty took place historically: [this video]