| Comment Number: | 531096-00041 |
| Received: | 8/3/2007 5:59:13 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | hamilton |
| State: | CA |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Private Sector Use of SSNs |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
SSN's can be thought of as a kind of password that is used to validate a person's identify. Since SSN's are publicly available, their use as a "password" is no longer valid. A different approach to validating and positively identifying a person is necessary. Since most computer systems and business processes are designed around the use of a SSN, it is not reasonable to remove its use from our society. What is reasonable is to use AN ADDITIONAL form of identification to positively identify that a person. The only sure-fire identification mechanism that really makes sense is to sequence each individual's DNA and to store the pattern in a secured goverment controlled database. Authentication would be performed by the identity requestor sending an electronic message representing a DNA sequence to a government agency, and the government agency would transmit a confirm or deny message back to the inquirer.