OT Do you know your SSN by heart?

[micky]

How many of you know your social Security number by heart?

I'm watching some police-arrest videos and when they can't find ID they ask the person for his SSN and of course they don't know that either, often because they are hiding their identity.

But I wonder how likely it is that a normal person would know his SSN.

I know mine, but I've always thought it's because it's unusually easy to remember, repeating numbers in a pattern. I assumed if it was anything more complicated I wouldn't know it, even now after 60 years.

So I'm asking the normal people here and everyone else too, since I don't know to discriminate invidiously.

[Ed P]

Not sure how old I was when I got mine, sometime in my teens. Memorized it back then. Still have the original issue card too.

[Snag]

My original card was in a wallet that was stolen many years ago . But I do know my number - and my wife's too . I can also remember my childhood phone number and that of my paternal grandparents .

[Cindy Hamilton]

I do, of course. I also know my husband's.

I know my driver's license number, but not my husband's. It's not needed as often.

Mine isn't any kind of pattern. I just memorized it, as we used to memorize phone numbers. Brute force and repetition.

Count me among the "everyone else".

[JRB Ware]

Got it memorized but if I forget, I'll just google it. ☺

[Retirednoguilt]

In addition to doing my own income tax returns for the past 62 years, I served 30 years on active duty in the Navy and have received almost all my medical care at Walter Reed before and since retirement 22 years ago. I've had plenty of time to memorize my SSN by now. A few years ago, for privacy reasons, DoD removed the SSN from our military ID cards and replaced that number with an even longer DoD ID number which is now how we're identified on our military health records. I've yet to reliably memorize that new number when asked for it every time I call central appointments and visit a clinic or military pharmacy. I still remember both my own home phone number when a pre-teenager and that of my grandmother from back in the in 1950s. However, these days, even after more than a decade using the same cell phone number, I still make mistakes when asked for it and have never reliably memorized it. Just don't ask me for ANY of my web user IDs/passwords. Especially for those long nonsense passwords I'm required to change every 90 days. We lived in our previous residence for 30 years. We've lived at our present one for 7. I still struggle not to transpose the digits on our new street address and zip code. It's frustrating! Our entire modern society has become totally dependent on providing strings of digits.

[Ralph Mowery]

Older people should. Seems that almost everything is by ssn or the last

4 digits of your ssn.

Younger people not so much.

As an older person I have known mine for many years and still have a ss card from when I was about 16.

I think now you get one when born in the US.

[Cindy Hamilton]

I would be in the same situation, except that the loyalty program at my grocery store has me punch in my cell phone number to get my coupons. Once a week for a few years did it.

I have a fair few of those memorized. And, of course, the login on my Linux PC.

I'm happy I don't have any of those.

Soon it'll just be an eyeball scan or something.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I know mine, and have since I was 18.

[micky]

I use my home phone for that, and it was so easy to memorize I knew it

30 minutes after I first heard it. It was the phone number of the man who owned the house I wanted to buy. I begged him to let me have it when he moved, back to Louisiana, and he did. He had to give permission to the phone company for me to have it.

I have a couple memorized. If I had it to do over again, I'd have ignored some of the advice given out and used the same userid and password for every site except those involving money. Like my electricians forum, toyota forum,... What do I care if someone hacks into one from the other?

Me too (happy). Me neither (don't have any). I still have a bank password from 1993. Wait, no, it's my ATM password. It's only 4 digits long and I use the same number for all 4 digits. So far so good.

What annoys me is that they don't tell you their rules for passwords until after you've chosen one and try to enter it. Why don't they give the rules in advance?

[micky]

So all 8 of you know your SSN. So I guess the police aren't wasting their time when they ask that (from people who don't seem to know where they live, etc.) Maybe I'd know mine too even if it weren't as easy as it is.

[T]

It was my "serial number" in the military. Never forgot it.

[Lane]

These days most folks seem to get them for their kids as soon as they're born, but they still have to be applied for.

[micky]

I thought they found you, but you're right.

"The easiest way to get a Social Security number (SSN) for your newborn is to apply when you provide information for your baby's birth certificate in the hospital. If you wait to apply for a number at a Social Security office, there may be delays while we verify your child's birth certificate."

You need an SSN to claim your child as a dependent on your income tax return. [That should do it.] Your child may also need a number if you plan to: • Open a bank account for the child. • Buy savings bonds for the child. • Get medical coverage for the child. • Apply for government services for the child.

This is even more important now that several states are weakening child labor laws. Children shouldn't be a financial burden on their parents.

[Retirednoguilt]

You'd have a new and longer one now (10 digits) for active duty, retired, and dependents qualifying for benefits.

[Retirednoguilt]

I refuse to use biometric ID for my cell phone. I'm glad my wife and I know the master password to boot up each of our cell phones so if anything happens to one of us, the other can use it. Seems that with biometric ID, the rest of the world is locked out in all circumstances.

[Retirednoguilt]

When I asked my parents why they had obtained a SSN for me when I was 2 y.o., I had to giggle. Believe it or not, I was a very photogenic toddler and actually was a paid model for children's clothing newspaper ads by one of NYC's finest department stores! The SSN was needed by the store's payroll department. (I have some of the photos the studio photographer took and I have to admit, I was adorable!)

>

[Ed P]

Why? Other forms still work but rather than putting in passwords for apps I just touch the fingerprint.

Biometric is "in addition to" not in place of.

[micky]

I don't need any of that becauze I don't lock my phone.

There's nothing important in it, except some phone numbers and my friends probably get lots of spam already so a little more won't hurt.

When my phone was stolen, in Greece, there were no other consequences.

As to installing Windows, which no one brought up, if the computer is connected to the internet when one does that, it will insist on a password, but if it's disconnected, you don't have to set a password. If a burglar wants to use my computer, he can.

[Retirednoguilt]

Thanks; good to know. However, as it takes me less than 2 seconds to tap in the digits of my lock code and hit the OK, I don't understand the benefit. As far as using a full facial or just a retinal scan, I found that positioning is very critical and sometimes hard to scan properly when I needed to use them. Once again, to me the only advantage is when the need is to restrict access to the one individual with those biometric features and no "backdoor" is intentionally available for reasons of high security.