Identity theft isn't something I hear about often here.
The ID is government issued, cheap to obtain in case of loss (30€ and a bit of waiting until the new one arrives) and contains a photo of you so it's of no particular value to someone who doesn't look like you.
IIRC identity theft isn't a huge problem in Germany but it exists, however most credit agencies offer options to lock down or delete data concerning such theft, I haven't interacted with any of them yet though.
In addition, each government service uses a different ID number and is forbidden from sharing information or using another service's ID number. So you have a fiscal number for taxes, a social security number for health things, an identity card number that only has meaning with the card itself. Your private (non-healthcare) insurance, your bank, and other private institutions can issue you their own number as well (or another kind of id key) but can not share them between themselves and cannot ask you to give them numbers of unrelated services. Citizens are responsible for forwarding themselves most information between separate services when needed.
In practice it makes it sometimes tedious to auth at any of these services (you have to find your number in whatever mail you received or card you got issued) but it really makes it more difficult to impersonate another citizen, as you would at most gain access to one service, and it wouldn't help you access any other.
Or use the eID functionality, which is growing now that the old IDs are starting to expire.
A couple of weeks ago I had a friend over who used my WLAN to eID for some service (i think it was pre-paid CC? Neither of us can't remember at this point) over his android phone using some "AusweisApp2".
He ended up in a video chat with a lady who asked him to show his face/ID and swivel the ID in the light so she could see the reflections of the security features.
I was sitting next to that whole process thinking about how difficult it would be to put on a convincing facemask and create a matching fake ID that would pass a video inspection.
Shouldn't be that difficult, most certainly less difficult than trying to convince a postman in person by showing them a fake ID at an address matching the fake ID.
Rather, it's just very difficult compared to faking an SSN number on the internet.
The address in this case would be difficult since a lot of institutions pull your address from the local registry, so you can't convince them to not sent stuff to any victims address unless you manage to change their address in the registry too.
Ah, that’s the system you use when you don’t have any of the new eIDs, but one of the old ones.
That should be phased out by 2021
To confirm your income: Your yearly income tax sheet, a payslip or your contract of employment.
There is really no reason whatsoever for credit check and background check agencies to exist. All they do is ask for these papers anyway.
But think about America right now. Do you honestly think we could get national ID numbers? Could you imagine people being asked for a DNA swab or fingerprint to establish their identity? The blow black would be monstrous, and I don't think it'd be entirely unjustified. With 1% of our population incarcerated or on probation, with no national health care and being the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, there is good reason for Americans not to trust their government. Add in all the fundie religious people crying "sign of the beast" and Alex Jones followers yelling "national RFID chips" and you're stuck with a situation that cannot change.
Not necessarily. Not all states require an SSN in order to issue an ID.
> But think about America right now. Do you honestly think we could get national ID numbers?
Unfortunately (for all the reasons you mentioned and more), we're pretty close, as the REAL ID system is about to take effect.
That's going to be a huge problem for people living in the states that don't issue REAL IDs. It's also going to be a problem for legal immigrants and transgender people in every state.
I was under the impression that every single state requires an SSN to issue a driver's license or id card in order to track and enforce child support order across state lines.
Which states don't require an SSN to issue an ID?
Legal immigrants have passports, and ID cards/driver's licenses from their home country. I'm not sure what will require two forms of REAL ID compliant identification.
Nope. If they did, the impetus behind the REAL ID act wouldn't even be relevant, because illegal immigrants wouldn't be able to obtain a drivers' license or state ID.
> Which states don't require an SSN to issue an ID?
California is the biggest one, and in fact, California makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone who has a driver's license but cannot show legal residency.
Some states mark licenses as "not valid for identification" if they don't show legal residency, but it's usually subtle and easily overlooked or ignored. And the SSN isn't the only way to show legal residency, either.
> Legal immigrants have passports, and ID cards/driver's licenses from their home country.
For foreigners, passports are the only acceptable form of identification from foreign governments. Driver's licenses and other government IDs are not allowed, with the exception of driver's licenses from Canada.
Missourians have good reason to distrust the DMV, as they have been caught red handed illegally useing their databases in the recent past.
One shouldn't verify documents unless you're a member of the organization that issued them.
I remember needing to get a new SSN card once and it was creepy how easy it was.
The difference is probably that here those agencies aren't somehow trying to guarantee my identity. They just answer what credit rating my identity has.
In non insane countries, you are considered debt-free when you have no credit, not when you accumulate credits and pay them with one another.
I'm not sure how you think the American system works if you think that "debt-free" has any meaning other than "no balances or debts outstanding".
In Estonia I believe the system is based on public key cryptography (every national ID has a private key that is used for signing things).
Wow, that's really user-friendly, I wish it would be handled like that in Germany too.
Instead, German registration offices are selling citizen registration data in bulk to most interested parties and they couldn't even tell you to whom [0].
People can opt out of that process, by handing in a written objection with their initial registration, tho barely anybody actually does that because barely anybody is aware of their data being sold in the first place.
These are implemented as biometric two factor auth. So you show your id card, scan your finger print and validate via a code received to the registered mobile device on sms
(1) https://www.google.com.sg/amp/m.timesofindia.com/business/in...
And in a delightful catch-22, Aadhaar is essentially a requirement for obtaining a cell phone.
You can bypass this with some other documents and providing a landline that they verify within a week, but it's incredibly cumbersome.
I don't know what the rules were back then for moving to Canada, but you could stay 180 days at a time back then.
I'm glad they can make discresionary decisions like that for special circumstances, such as someone who clearly can't have an ID or passport yet.
Mind if I ask, did they ask for your passport?
It's the same in the US too. The problem in the article is that the person had a legitimate driver's license issued in the stolen name with his own picture on it.
It's not just a simple as "he had the SSN".
+ Getting a mortgage as an identity thief? Fine. Easy to pay him a visit.
+ Getting a car? No. That's dumb. You can buy a car if you have the money.
+ Getting a bank account? Fine. Just force banks to disallow people to go below zero for several years (or forever). Replace all credit cards by debit cards.
That's basically the situation in the Netherlands for most part. Identity still gets stolen, but the impact is minimal.