[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Feature proposal: SSN-censoring functionality

[Jason Stephenson]

Quoting Wolf Halton <wolf.halton at gmail.com>:

> Storing SSNs unencrypted is a terrific mistake, in the US. Storing them at
> all is a Very Bad Thing (TM).
> Storing a hash that is evidence that a proper authority has seen the
> number, or just a boolean true, seems like enough.

This reply is not directed at Wolf in particular, but to the whole  
discussion of the US SSN and its storage.

The SSN was intended to be used by the Social Security Administration  
and that Administration only! Any other use of that number, including  
by the IRS, is against the law that established US Social Security. of  
course, when has the US Government ever followed its own law....

It *should* be perfectly harmless to store that number. In many cases,  
many persons SSNs are a matter of public record for various reasons.

The flaw is not the storage of the SSN, but how that number is misused  
in the US financial system.

The above also applies to drivers' license numbers. They should not  
need to be secret, except for the stupidity of humans and  
human-designed systems that assume those numbers are secure and unique  
identifiers, which they are not. (As an example, I am the second  
person to have my SSN. They are often recycled when people die.)

I hold SSN, DL# and passwords all in equal contempt as  
"identification" measures. They fulfill no such purpose.

Stepping down from my soapbox, I see absolutely no reason for a US  
library to store a patron's SSN. A drivers' license number, perhaps,  
but not the SSN. My suggestion is to delete the field, and if someone  
needs to track such an identifier then let them figure it out within  
the bounds of their local law.

"I am not a unique identifier! I am a free man!" To paraphrase Patrick  
McGoohan.

-- 
Jason Stephenson
Assistant Director for Technology Services
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
Chief Bug Wrangler, Evergreen ILS