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A comment on Senators push to ditch social security numbers in light of Equifax hack. Parent comment

Re:Senators push to ditch social security numbers in light o... by ryanlol on Thursday November 09, 2017 @04:57AM (#15661160)
I suppose you'd just use a passport instead then? Or do they actually verify those too?
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Re:Senators push to ditch social security numbers in light o... by kuschku on Thursday November 09, 2017 @07:27AM (#15661815)
If you use a passport, it'll take a lot longer to verify.

For example, banks will photocopy your passport and verify the signature on it to ensure that it's correct.

(Basically, there's an algorithm used to compute a 30 digit hash on the ID or passport, which is computed from the IDs content and a secret seed. Anyone can verify this hash easily with open algorithms and tools, but only the government can create them).

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