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by BobaFloutist 925 days ago
I think what they're saying is that name (probably not), SSN (almost definitely), DOB (maybe?) and address (probably) have known, confirmed risks. There are current ways that bad actors can abuse that information.

Genome is still pretty theoretical, except getting caught for committing crimes.
1 comments
dekhn 925 days ago
I just checked, and using my True Name (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names) I can easily find my DOB, prior addresses and phone numbers, and using that information, it's likely I could make a reasonable guess for the SSN.
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BobaFloutist 925 days ago
it's likely I could make a reasonable guess for the SSN.

It is? I mean then why are we bothering to protect anything, this shit is all super available for any given person.

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dekhn 925 days ago
SSNs are fairly predictable- if you know region of birth and DOB you can get awfully close, for a wide range of the population.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0904891106

Konerding's 12th law, amended: "There is no bit of pseudonymized data which cannot be de-anonymized by a sufficiently motivated MIT grad student" (not entirely joking; see https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/2...)

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