What a perfect time to stop using social security numbers for specifically the thing they were not designed to be.
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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Except the dumfucks have railed against the idea of a national id number since before they removed "Not to be used for ID" from the SS cards. So instead we have a national id number that was never meant to be one and stupidly easy to figure out.
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All U.S. Social Security numbers may need to be changed
Yeah, sure, and winged monkeys may fly out of my ass. But I doubt it'll happen.
Yeah, honestly they have needed to be changed for years now, what with all the data breaches and stuff.. Pretty sure everyone’s info was leaked ages ago. Nothing has been done because this is how the people in charge want it.
We're the unwashed masses. Changing our social security numbers would mean considering us people worth more than a means of exploitation, and the ruling class couldn't possibly burden themselves with the mere thought.
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For sure. They were fine invalidating mine and everybody else's Puerto Rican birth certificate but they'll never put this sort of administrative burden in action.
It would have happened after Experian if it was ever possible for it to happen.
EDIT: I was thinking of Equifax but Experian is not clean either
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They actually need to publicly release everyone’s SSNs so that they can’t be used for authentication anymore, which they never should have been
I’ve been saying this for literal years now. They should release a publicly searchable database of every single SSN, name, and DOB. Force organizations to stop using those as a form of ID, because they’re not secure and never have been.
Give it like a year of lead time. Like announce “March 1 2027, we’ll post the database” and then that gives institutions a full year to figure something new out.
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SSNs are generally considered public information but how the SSN is linked to other information is usually the more difficult bit to find and it's generally pay-walled. (Any jackass with a business license and a credit card can usually buy background check information for 'hiring'.)
But no, it shouldn't be solely used for authentication. That is just dumb. However, it can be used as part of a larger verification and validation scheme while building authentication/authorization profiles. In most systems that I have seen that use full or partial SSNs, it is always linked to several other identifiers that need to match.
They are definitely not. People consider it increased risk for identity theft if they hear their SSN was stolen and you just cited how people are still using them in part for authentication. They need to be completely useless for authentication
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Borges alleges that a little-known federal tech team called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, copied the government’s master Social Security database into a cloud system that lacked normal oversight.
I don't know if I'd call them a little-known team (they're infamous for basically fraud), but point taken.
Regardless of whether or not they are breached, the social security numbering system needs to be changed because it is far from a secure number.
because it is far from a secure number.
It is only the American obsession with using it as a unique identifier for everything in their lives that has caused this issue.
It would be less expensive to simply trust everyone. Administering a numbering system and trying to prevent fraud costs more than the actual fraud it prevents, and does nothing to prevent the larger frauds.
It's like having a chain on the pen at the bank, with a security guard watching the chain, and three managers making aure the secuirty guard is watching the chain all day, but the cash drawers are open and the three managers simply help themselves to as much cash as they like.
You say that like we had any part in every single service asking for our SSN lmfao
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Let me guess... just in time for a 2028 election where we all suddenly need our valid SSN?
The Trump administration is building a computer system so that States can 'verify' a person's citizenship prior to allowing them to vote.
This system has failed in many, many ways. That makes me think that they would use the SSN database and other intelligence sources in order to setup the system to fail at a much higher rate for everyone but likely MAGA voters.
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more than 300 million Americans
Last I checked, that's all of 'em
Thanks a lot DOGE. So clearly Elon Musk gives every American compensation, we get new numbers and have all of our credit history wiped clean to start new right? Bc otherwise this just means we've all been massively fucked by Trump and his band of idiots
His wealth spread across everyone living in the U.S. is ~ $2500 a person
Not adult, not citizen, not household,..
Person
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Lmao, like they'd do that
A cynic in me suggests that this may be a move to push people off the system and disenfranchise them entirely, or the new rationale to create a second class of people who are forced to live with increased digital vulnerability while a new class of numbers can be generated with different privileges.
DOGE infiltrated months ago and you are just reacting now?
The people in power are the same ones who created DOGE. It's like Epstein - not like they're going to investigate themselves.
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I fucking CALLED IT.
I've been getting so many loan applications since they opened pandoras box last year. never had this problem. I even just got an alert my SSN has been found on the darknet.
take my advice, freeze your credit report at all three major credit firms NOW. don't wait, takes an hour for all three all online. doesn't matter of you're 9 or 90, do it do it do it.
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I'm less upset that all SSNs might end up compromised and more upset that no one is going to get punished for it. If a career Federal Employee did this, they would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
But since it was Elon's friends who did it, everyone in power will just shrug and say "who knew this would be such a big deal"....
0 chance they hand out new SSID, that's money and work and confusion, imagine every medical entity changing over that code?
First, the govt would need to make a lookup table.
Anyone that used their old ssid for something, or a system that had the old ssid in it, would need a translation to the new ID.
Sooo at what point could you safely stop accepting old ID's because they're all changed over? Never. Some random medical provider in east bumfuck, TN, still uses your SSID from their own paper copy. So you're stuck accepting old SSIDs and translating them into new SSIDs on demand, which completely breaks any security of changing IDs in the first place.
There have been enough nexus/credit leaks over the years, it's hardly news that those ID's are compromised.
Just a minor bit of pedantry, but Social Security Numbers are generally abbreviated as SSN, SSID usually refers to a "Service Set Identifier" aka WiFi network name.
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more than 300 million Americans
I know wiggle room is the gold standard of journalism... but you can just say "all Americans".
The rest are being deported.
File a lawsuit against fucking DOGE and MAGA.
And then what? The Department of “””justice””” is part of them.
SIEZE Elons assets arrest try him and repair the damage to American infrastructure with his money
ssn was never intended to be a form of identification. it was specifically decided that it would not be used as a form of identification by the administration that controlled it
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I have long predicted the entire goal of DOGE was to feed more data to Palantir, and clearly no other company is ever going to be given this level of security clearance, so they become dependent on it forever. I think this view is gaining more traction from what I've seen.
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lol I can confirm this, just gave my ssn to a reputable company’s hr system. And it says that info is already exists..
I'm sure that this will be more expensive to fix than whatever "savings" Elons ghouls have managed to bring.
They “leak” the numbers, then only issue new ones to the people they like…
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Just add a 1 at the end of them all. That's what I do when my work says I have to change my password.
Same. My password is on hunter2111111111111 now.
Shit, shouldn't have shared it. I'll just have to change it to >!hunter21111111111111!<.
I don't know what you're talking about, all I see is *******************
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I will keep laughing at Americans till they manage to get their broken democracy to establish an ID system like every other country.
The same group that pushes for voter ID laws refuses to implement a national ID system because they're afraid of the mark of the beast.
Too bad they already wear the mark, in the form of an ugly red hat
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Instead of new SSNs, how about we maybe the number less risky in general?
It should never have served as a "secret". Authenticating someone needs more than some account number. SSN should be more of a "username", not a password.
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