I work at a DMV. I have seen 10 yr old cards shredded to shit and 80 year cards in near mint condition. If great grandpappy can do it, yall can too.
back in high school I stuck mine in a hard plastic card case. Wherever it is now that I lost it, should at least be in good shape almost 30 years later.
I can confirm that it is indeed in great shape!
man, not everyone has an easy life 😔
Get married and change your last name! You’ll get a brand new one. Works for men too, trust me!
You don’t even have to get married just file name change paperwork
Or, you can just order a new one without changing your name.
Or you could get a social security card with the name Turd Ferguson on it. I mean, if you’re already going through the trouble of doing paperwork, what’s a little more?
I understand social security to mean paying into a state pension, a national healthcare service, and provision of education.
What does social security mean in the American context?
In the US Social Security is retirement income. SS tax comes out of every paycheck then when you retire you will get monthly income. So state pension but none of the other good stuff.
It was originally just a number to track contributions to quasi-pension system. However, because it was the only number universally assigned to people, it stated getting used way more often, most notably for credit issuers and reporting agencies.
Depends on who you ask. For millennials and younger, it means paying lots of money into a service that will be dissolved before we get to tap into it.
It’s also a number that’s supposed to be kept secure or something, but applying for pretty much anything requires you to provide it.
Yeah, it became a sort of federal identification since the US government didn’t want to make a federal ID and now we are stuck with a much more inferior system than if they just did anything. Since everyone got a SS card it became the de facto ID.
It pays the state pension which is good for a tiny fraction of retirement.
Depends what your spending is like. Someone who earns like 30K/year should get about 65% of their earning if they retire at 65. You’d have to save like another $1500/year (including company matches) to make up the difference.
If I kept working til I was like 70 and my pay only keeps up with inflation, I’d get about 130% of my spending via social security.
Irrelevant to the topic at hand. This is a social security card, which displays your social security number, which is the closest thing we have to a national ID. It is used for all things financial and for identity verification & background checks. If someone gets your name, address, and social security number, you can be in for a real bad time.
Which is unfortunately easy to do. There are some of those search sites that include SSNs on them. Haven’t seen one that detailed in a few years, but still. Just today I found a site that had addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and relatives. All accurate and all freely available, no registration required.
To add to the problem, social security was never meant to be an national ID number. It was just really useful for a whole lot of things. However, numbers are handed out sequentially, not randomly. So take your SIN and add or subtract one from it and that is another person’s SIN. Knowing just a few simple things about a person can reveal most if not their entire SIN.
Especially when Equifax leaked nearly half of all Americans’ names, social security numbers, addresses, birthdays, and driver license number in 2017. That info is just out there and we can never remove it.
At least they were punishe… Hahahaha as if.
When I was a food service manager I inexplicably had access to the social security numbers of everyone who had ever applied to work there. Thousands.
Oh no
don’t you americans have plastic version’s also, or did i get it wrong?
Nope, no plastic… Just a cardboard print it.
The idea is that if it gets lost outside somewhere, then the paper will degrade to the point that it’s no longer readable. You can always get another card if you lose yours.
Hmm, that actually makes a great point. I thought America was just cheap.
Shitty for us dungeon dwellers. We don’t go outside but coffee stains are a real threat.
For the vast majority of people who keep their cards safely stowed away in a drawer, this will likely never be an issue.
For someone who doesn’t have a safe place to keep one (for instance, homeless), this can get to being an issue pretty quickly.
That said, there are hardship exceptions to this rule.
RM 10205.425 Exception to SSN Card Limits Due to Hardship
When a number holder (NH) reaches his or her yearly or lifetime SSN card limits, an SSN replacement card may still be issued if failure to receive an SSN card will cause a hardship.
To receive an exception due to hardship, the NH must present a letter from a third-party provider, such as a State public assistance agency or an employer, indicating that the NH must present his or her SSN card to receive employment or a benefit.
So you’re not completely fucked, it’s just some extra leg work.
In what way is not replacing an SSN a non-hardship?
It’s required for so much shit.
It is, but you don’t need the physical card for very much. I’ve only ever needed the card for jobs. I’ve never had to apply for welfare, but I do belive you need a physical card to apply. But most of the time, you just need the number.
So what happens when you get 10?
I guess I’ll just Die?
I read somewhere they send a denial letter. Not sure what implications that has.
Wait are we supposed to carry these around? I became a permanent resident back in 2010 and I don’t think I’ve ever taken mine out of my filing cabinet.
No, you don’t need to carry it around. Memorizing it and keeping it safe for the few occasions you do need the card itself is fine.
When do you ever need it? I just remember the number. I don’t think I’ve ever had to scan
The last several jobs I have taken, they’ve wanted a scan of it for tax purposes.
I think it’s ironic how this super private personal number that is unique to you and not to be shared is what you have to share with every job, college, financial institution, etc.
This is why I think that temporary SSNs should be a thing . It would be a number that links to your real SSN and would be used to verify your identity, but would stop working after a day or two. That way if a company has a data breach, any SSNs that get stolen would no longer work.
Real ID drivers licenses. In Minnesota it’s one of the forms they accept and if it’s laminated… They say… No
Interesting, my wife and I just got Real IDs in Maryland and didn’t take our social security cards…but now that I think about it, we used our passports for ID, so maybe that’s why.
I-9 if you don’t have the other stuff it asks for. Generally need to fill one out at every new job. https://www.uscis.gov/i-9
Fun fact, there is a lifetime limit for the number of replacements you can get for these (I forget but I think it’s like 12), if you lose too many no more social security card for you
Shit.
It’s not impossible, just harder. They’re going to need documentation for it.
But SSN is the root of all identity documentation, except birth certificate I guess
Well it’s more like proving you need it issued again. Although they are going to ask for supporting ID documents too.
True story if you run out of attempts they give you a poncho and deport you to Australia
I’ve heard blur is not destructive. Please use a paintbrush on 100% opacity if you do this
Depends on the kind of blur. Some kinds can indeed be almost perfectly removed if you know the used blurring function, others are destructive. But, yes, don’t take that chance. Always delete/paint over sensitive information.
Source: we had to do just that in a course I took a long time ago.
wouldn’t you also need to know in what kind of pattern the blur was applied. I am sure if you do it multiple times starting from multiple non identical partitioning of the region, it will be impossible.
You’re severely underestimating the power of weaponized autism.
I prefer sampling the surroundings, typing out a different number or text over it, then blurring with a non destructive effect.
Name: Phil McCracken
SSN: EAT-MY-NUTS
Just for anyone who tries
Signature: …
Ah man, I remember when they caught some pedo creep who used a non-destructive blur on the CSAM materials he produced with his face. So satisfying.
He only spiral blurred his face… So they just did it in the opposite direction. It was beyond stupid
Always paint over sensitive information.
Not in PDF tho. There, the stroke is saved in metadata…
When I post pictures with blurred information, I replace the info with something trollish and then blur it. Nobody appreciated that so far. :(
I’ve switched to a mosaic blur. Looks neat and always destructive.
Actually not always, there is a script that can recover text from mosaic’d screenshots if the font and pixellation technique is known. I just use a fake mosaic.
Thanks for that.
I’m glad I use really huge pixels though. Would be hard to crack these:
Why are you not allowed to laminate it?
That would make it much easier to fake it
How?
They can’t run it under a tap and see if it falls apart like a real one
That’s a joke right, not something American authorities do?
Yes. It’s a joke. But it is a special type of cardboard-like paper that they use, which is crappy to save money.
Plastic sleeve, boom problem solved, I’m 34 and I’ve only ever had one birth certificate because I keep it in a sleeve.
But hopefully y’all Americans can phase out the physical cards like we did in Canada.
Scanning is allowed? A photo?
Any verification requires the physical document.
That’s just plain stupid… Get a federal ID already like most countries.
Eh, I can’t remember the last time I needed to show my social security card. It might have been 2006, when I moved to this state. It’s EXTREMELY rare that we need the physical card. We need the number more often, but most people will have memorized that.
Still, you cannot change the number and it’s a disaster if it leaks, which is very easy. Instead, our country uses IDs with chips that can be used with standard readers to securely authenticate with government and private services online. There is also a changeable PIN and optional third-factor authentication. People who cannot or don’t want to use the system need to visit the institution or a CzechPoint site and show the physical card and their face.
Yeah. In our case it’s worth noting that the social security number system wasn’t designed to be used the way it is used. It was just meant for retirement tracking.
Now if we tried what you described, we’d probably have people screeching about the number of the beast and new evil Democrat deep state conspiracy theories. Sigh.
While you’re at it, get the metric system too!
Why do people downvote posts like this? What’s the problem? It’s funny, true, and in the right community.
Because they are being stupid. You are not supposed to carry it with you. You only take it when you need to for something like the DMV. Otherwise it should just be filed away. A social security card is NOT ID.
Thanks for the link! The last time I looked into replacing my long lost SSA card the government was much less “online” and it was going to involve spending money and traveling long distances. Thanks to you, I’m expecting a letter from SSA in the next few weeks to confirm my ID, and then I’ll get a new card issued.
Some people just need a reason to hate and avoid any personal accountability. They’ll take anything they can get, they’ve had a shitty day/year/life and somehow beating up on a faceless stranger feels morally acceptable to them. The truth is, they are in fact just awful people, looking to justify their shitty behavior by correcting grammar or downvoting a complete stranger. Trying their damndest to avoid looking in the mirror. Whilst the rest of us humans, have a shitty day but roll with it. Because if you can’t let it roll off, you will never be happy.
Yes, however
they are in fact just
awfulhurt peopleSome are less familiar with kindness than others.
Lack of fiber in the diet
Some people just downvote for weird reasons, so I figure it’s not worth worrying about. Someone once told me they were downvoting every post I share that has bright colors because they use dark mode… Lol
They were letting you know you have brite ideas!
Sometimes I feel an odd catharsis from simply existing on the internet, and this comment captures a lot of why
I always flip a coin for whether I upvote or downvote. It’s not really about trying to make a decision, I’m just trying to get my thumbs in shape for that thumb wrestling tournament I have coming up.
Sometimes, I try to swipe to go back and accidentally up or downvote things.
It’s funny, true, and in the right community.
That’s never stopped anybody before.
Seriously, more than once I’ve posted something completely benign, innocuous, and appropriate in a niche community that gets maybe one post a month, and that post receives a score of -10 or something. I don’t understand it, but if you want niche communities to thrive, you have to quit caring about downvotes.
Personally, I think that they should only have upvotes, because downvotes are a negative experience for users, and they’re too easy to game. You can have bots, sock puppets, you name it. And having a post with a negative score tells you nothing about why it has a negative score. Was it offensive? Who knows?
Some servers only allow upvotes. Some only show local downvotes, so it at least minimizes their impact.
Except it’s not true. Social Security cards are useless for identification purposes. I haven’t seen my SS card in 30 years. I’ve never been asked for it or needed it in any way for at least that long. 
I got mine in 1986 and it pretty much looks like the picture.
Fun side note: back then, you didn’t get a social security number until you were old enough to get a job. I was fourteen when I got my social security number.
My wife found out you can get one earlier as long as your parents sign off on it. They then used her social security to scam some loans while she’s a child, which fucked her up later when she moves out on her own and tried to get an apartment.
This is extremely common, and one of the reasons that using SSN for credit reports is a horrible practice. The only way for someone to dispute the debts is to report their parents to the authorities, which is a horrible position to be in when you’re freshly 18. The real solution would be a simple age check, to verify if the person applying for the loan is actually 18. But that
is apparently too difficultwould prevent banks from saddling literal children with mountains of debt.
LOL, no. I was born in '71 and my parents got me one immediately. I remember them showing me as a child and thinking, “Why do I care about this?”
I mean, for sure you could. In my country would didn’t get an ID card/number until you needed to get a job or travel by plane. I got mine when I was 12. But nowadays babies always get their I’d card after birth.
Good for you and your parents, but it wasn’t common until 1986 when Reagan’s new tax code suddenly required social security numbers for dependents. It was 1987 when they started rolling it out as part of the birth at the hospital.
Your lol no tone implies I don’t remember my own teen years.
You said we didn’t get ss numbers until we got jobs and we said no.
Yeah, I was born in 80 and have had it since birth.
Same.
I’ve kept mine in a tight card slot in a leather wallet for longer than some of these commentators have been alive and it honestly still looks great.
Anyone else imagining this as the wallet
Yeah that’s the one, they don’t make them like that anymore.
My mom laminated mine when I was like 6 years old. It still has my 6 year-old, childish signature on it. Every time I use it someone says “you’re not supposed to laminate these”, and then they accept it anyways. So who’s the fool now?
My ex’s dad laminated his whole ass birth certificate. He had a bitch of a time fixing that lmao.
Though I think people ask for birth certificate less often than they do our SIN (and also our SIN cards are actual literal cards in Canada not just pieces of paper).
They stopped issuing cards and just print it on a full 8.5"x11" piece of paper now actually lol.
I always thought my birth certificate was the little vanity one with my feet prints on it. I learned it isn’t when I actually needed a birth certificate for the first time. Since I live in an entirely different State now it was a bit of a PITA to get the real one.
Oh, you forgot the part where you are only allowed a fixed number of replacements in your lifetime.
10 in your life. 3 each year.
