900 social insurance numbers stolen from Revenue Canada via Heartbleed

Re:900 social insurance numbers stolen from Revenue Canada v... by upofadown on Monday April 14, 2014 @11:11AM (#7586572)

In Canada you can refuse to give someone your SIN for non-government purposes ... in theory. I was once refused an apartment sublet once when I did this. I had to come back with evidence that the landlord had no legal right to collect the SIN. That and the strong implication I was capable and willing to file a complaint.

People use all sorts of zany things to try to prove identity. I think public education is the first line of defence against the misuse of things like SSN/SIN.

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Re:900 social insurance numbers stolen from Revenue Canada v... by kitcar on Monday April 14, 2014 @01:50PM (#7587670)

More specifically - you can't refuse to give your SIN to a financial institution or to your employer (as for 99% of Canadians those are their main sources of income, and because those entities need to submit information to the government regarding your income for tax purposes).

For most other things though you can refuse to disclose it (i.e. telecom providers, debt-only financial institutions like credit card providers)

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Re:900 social insurance numbers stolen from Revenue Canada v... by err4nt on Monday April 14, 2014 @05:34PM (#7589103)

I didn't think it was so much a 'you have the right to refuse' as much as it was 'it's illegal to ask' for situations not related to taxes and payroll and stuff like that.

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