What I'm Telling US Congress about Data Breaches
Something I would have liked to see - but perhaps this letter wasn't the right place.<p>Let's talk about how the ubiquitous use of SSN and credit reports puts a massively unfair burden on every US citizen.<p>Right now, it's <i>all on me</i>. I need to safeguard everything related to my government-issued nine digit ID that I never asked for - yet is somehow accepted as my financial identity, well beyond its intended scope.<p>If I fail to do so, or if I fail to aggressively identify fraudulent use of it by monitoring reports from 3-4 different agencies, it's <i>on me</i>. It's <i>my</i> credit that's screwed.<p>It's hard to emphasize enough how unreasonable that is. This isn't a house or other peace of real property that's in my control - it's 4 bytes of data that is assigned to me, but that I fundamentally have no control over.<p>In spite of that, I am accountable for any and all uses of that data.  It's hours of my life each time a breach occurs - more if it's actually misused. The assumption of 'bad credit risk unless and until you convince the reporting agencies that fraud has happened' is a fundamentally flawed one.<p>I can't opt out. I can only keep spending my time and money to play the game - because it's the only one in town.