[0cf8612b2e1e]

When can we move away from SSNs being a pseudo secret? They have obviously been leaked everywhere at this point.

Relatedly, is there an up to date guide on how I am supposed to freeze my credit? Last I looked, it required handing over all of my PII, which I found super distasteful, but I should accept none of it is secret and do the minimum to protect myself from ~financial institutions falling for fraud~ identity theft.

[earthboundkid]

You freeze your credit by making an account on TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax's websites. It sucks, and they suck, but it's free. Unless you take out loans quite frequently, there's no reason not to do it. My credit has been frozen for years, and I only ever unfreeze it for a month or two at a time when I need to refinance a mortgage or something like that.

[stvltvs]

This is good as far as it goes, but what about all those times customer support for companies unrelated to your credit asks you for the last four of your SSN (birthrate, address, etc.) to confirm your identity?

[earthboundkid]

If they aren't doing a credit pull, it's fine. If they are, you unfreeze for the month, but credit pulls hurt your credit. You shouldn't just do them randomly.

[c0wb0yc0d3r]

I just write that stuff in my password manager.