ID theft writ large
A second major company that collects personal information about American consumers has been the victim of theft. LexisNexis had data on 32,000 consumers fraudulently stolen. WaPo has the story here.
I think a lot of people know about the dangers of ID theft, but mostly that's on the personal scale of losing your credit card, having your bills stolen out of the trash, or giving your social security number to the wrong person. How on earth are Americans supposed to feel secure in their personal information when huge companies they've never heard it give away--either by neglect, intent, or accident? How are we supposed to minimize our chances of being an ID theft victim when the mechanisms of theft are completely removed from our day-to-day lives?
Am I supposed to run a credit check every month to make sure that ChoicePoint or LexisNexis didn't give away my information and now someone's opened 13 credit cards in my name? Actually, how do I know right now that hasn't happened? Some other ChoicePoint-type company may have already been burgled and either hasn't reported it or doesn't know about it. If that's the case, the theives may have my information and are using it right now to take out loans or credit cards and screwing up my credit. How would I know?
These are simply things that people 100 years ago didn't have to worry about. Hell, these are things people didn't have to worry much about just 25 years ago. The price of technological advancement is the increasing complexity of the world around us. At what point does technology and the societal systems it spawns advance so far that an ordinary person is incapable of safely and competently navigating though the world on their own?
Update 031805 2000: Emergent Chaos points out there's no reason for colleges to use SSN as ID numbers, a point all the more illustrated by the recent hacking of Chico State's records.
posted by Q at 3/09/2005 02:13:00 PM
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