Timeline for Why not use a national ID as username for every website?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 20, 2017 at 21:21 | comment | added | hlovdal | And we use them for everything. That is not true. It is used for things like banks, insurance, tax office, hospitals, drivers licence - sure. But absolutely not "everything". | |
| Oct 19, 2017 at 15:32 | comment | added | David Richerby | @MichaelKjörling OK, but whether it has to be done in person, on the phone, by email, by letter, by fax or whatever wasn't really the significant part of my question. | |
| Oct 19, 2017 at 15:27 | comment | added | user | @DavidRicherby No need to walk into an office. Just call them on the phone. No need to give your own name, or any reason for your request; a full name and street address for anyone (so they can find the person in question) will get you anyone's ID number. Lots of people don't seem to realize that this is the case. | |
| Oct 18, 2017 at 8:08 | comment | added | Anders | @DavidRicherby No, no need to lie. Just say "I'd like the ID number of Stefan Löven, please." and they will happily give you the ID of the prime minister. Besides, it's just a function of your date of birth, gender, place of birth plus a counter so theres very little entropy in it anyway. Keeping it secret is absolutely pointless. | |
| Oct 18, 2017 at 8:04 | comment | added | Stig Hemmer | I just looked this up on Norwegian and Swedish Wikipedia, and this is different in Sweden and Norway. In Sweden these numbers are public information, In Norway, they are supposedly secret. I think Sweden has the right of it, keeping these secret is simply too hard. | |
| Oct 18, 2017 at 8:00 | comment | added | David Richerby | @Anders Wait. You can walk into a tax office and get anyone's ID number or just your own? Which is to say, if I want to get your number, do I have to impersonate you (which is risky, likely to be illegal and may require me to know quite a lot about you) or can I just go in and say, "Hi, I'm David. What's Anders's number?" | |
| Oct 17, 2017 at 14:31 | comment | added | gerrit | @Anders I used to live in Sweden, and I've certainly found people protective (but not hyper-protective) over their personnummer, with leaks making the news. | |
| Oct 17, 2017 at 14:24 | comment | added | stuart10 | Chile is similar - the ID number called RUT (Rol Único Tributario) is used for essentially everything from legal contracts to tax to online shopping to student email, to Nectar points, etc. In contrast to Norway the RUT numbers themselves are public knowledge and are handed out in order, so that (excluding immigrants) someone with the RUT 20.000.000-1 will be older than someone with 23.000.000-1 | |
| Oct 17, 2017 at 14:23 | comment | added | Anders | @gerrit I am sure for Sweden. Maybe there is an exception for people with "protected identity", but for people in general you can just get their personal ID number by contacting any tax office. | |
| Oct 17, 2017 at 14:19 | comment | added | gerrit | @Anders Are you sure? | |
| Oct 17, 2017 at 11:37 | comment | added | Anders | "In theory ID numbers are secret" Is that so in Norway? In Sweden they are public - just walk into a tax office and ask and they will be happy to give you the ID for anyone. | |
| Oct 17, 2017 at 10:51 | history | answered | Stig Hemmer | CC BY-SA 3.0 |