...is a phone company doing with SSNs?
Nobody gets my SSN but the IRS and my employer.
AT&T is warning customers that their personal information might have been breached as part of a scheme to unlock and resell devices. The company said in a filing to the California Attorney General's office that employees at an unnamed service provider it works with had accessed the personal data of customers including social …
Given how many companies you may work for in a career even with those limitations it is hard to consider such a number a secret. Better to treat as only an identifier with no authentication value.
Identity theft doesn't exist, identity fraud gets committed against banks and other financial organisations. Identity theft is a meme to shift the blame and the victim.
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"and is offering to pick up the tab for one year of credit-monitoring services, least the social security numbers be used to register unauthorized charge accounts."
Only a year? What if that data doesn't happen to magically explode in a puff of smoke after 12 months and the criminals use it or sell it on? Or is it accepted by the careless companies that any criminal use of that data after 12 months can safely be argued to have come from somewhere else and not land at their door?
Why local utilities think they have any right to ask for SSN when that information has nothing whatsoever to do with providing simple services and you're not talking about large contracts. In many states they are specifically prohibited from demanding such prior to providing services or as a condition of providing services.
A pox on their houses.