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The dead have no privacy rights? (SSDI searches)

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Anonyma

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Nov 23, 2006, 10:36:16 PM11/23/06
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The "Social Security Death Index" allows people to search for
any deceased person and find their Social Security number. What
ethical principle robs people of all privacy once they die?
What's the main reason for this info being online? Some claim
it's genealogy but SSNs only go back to 1936.

http://xrl.us/tfnh (popular SSDI site)

I can't be the only one who finds this unsettling and prone to
abuse. Even if an old SSN in unusable, a stalker can get
formerly privileged info on someone. This could lead to hassles
for their living relatives through unknown means.

I've heard the excuse about "public records" but these searches
have become easier by orders of magnitude, not just degrees.
There's no comparison to the clunky efforts you had to go
through before. I say let the dead rest in peace. They could
easily limit search results to those last-4-digits that give
privacy to the living.

NSZ

=> Vox Populi©

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Nov 23, 2006, 11:07:03 PM11/23/06
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Anonyma wrote:
> The "Social Security Death Index" allows people to search for
> any deceased person and find their Social Security number. What
> ethical principle robs people of all privacy once they die?
> What's the main reason for this info being online?

It's so one can EASILY determine whether some Identity Thief
scumbag is using the stolen SSN of a Dead Person, as was the
typical MO in recent past... ghosting dead people.

Cyberiade.it Anonymous Remailer

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Nov 25, 2006, 1:58:14 AM11/25/06
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FUCK THE DEAD! (I mean, really fuck them!)

dead people have no rights.

dead people are food.


=> Vox Populi©

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Nov 25, 2006, 4:16:46 PM11/25/06
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Why? Can't get a live date?

>
> dead people have no rights.

True. Rights are for LIVING people.

>
> dead people are food.

Only if you like the taste of Soilent Green.


George Orwell

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Nov 25, 2006, 5:50:19 PM11/25/06
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=> Vox PopuliŠ wrote on Thurs, Nov 23 2006 8:07 pm:

Anonyma wrote:

>> The "Social Security Death Index" allows people to search for
>> any deceased person and find their Social Security number.
What
>> ethical principle robs people of all privacy once they die?
>> What's the main reason for this info being online?

> It's so one can EASILY determine whether some Identity Thief


> scumbag is using the stolen SSN of a Dead Person, as was the
> typical MO in recent past... ghosting dead people.

That makes sense superficially but it doesn't answer other
questions. Didn't authorities in charge of fraud investigation
have access to the SSDI before it was Web-based? Law enforcement
has always used their own channels.

I'm talking about the public's ability to find data that used to
require travel, or was hard to get without a warrant. The Web
has introduced many portals for vigilante justice.

And what of a person's legacy and the concept of respecting the
dead? Should someone in a permanent coma lose privacy rights for
similar reasons? At least give these ideas some thought.

NSZ

Dane

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Nov 25, 2006, 10:53:31 PM11/25/06
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"George Orwell" <nob...@mixmaster.it> wrote in message
news:4f26ed808ff180ab...@mixmaster.it...

would it be repectful of the dead to make it hard on the many family history
buffs who devote much effort finding out their family trees and filling it
in with as much information as possible? I'm sure a lot of those dead folks
would be pleased if they knew that the had great great great great great
grandchildren who cared enough about them to make the effort to know of
their existence.


you're probably right, though. Maybe you can get a lawyer here to interest a
congressman enough for him to sponser a bill making it an unlawful invasion
of privacy to include any name, date, or other information about a dead
person on any headstone, monument, or other commemorative device.

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

=> Vox Populi©

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Nov 26, 2006, 12:24:44 AM11/26/06
to
George Orwell wrote:
> => Vox PopuliŠ wrote on Thurs, Nov 23 2006 8:07 pm:
>
> Anonyma wrote:
>
>>> The "Social Security Death Index" allows people to search for
>>> any deceased person and find their Social Security number. What
>>> ethical principle robs people of all privacy once they die?
>>> What's the main reason for this info being online?
>
>> It's so one can EASILY determine whether some Identity Thief
>> scumbag is using the stolen SSN of a Dead Person, as was the
>> typical MO in recent past... ghosting dead people.
>
> That makes sense superficially but it doesn't answer other
> questions. Didn't authorities in charge of fraud investigation
> have access to the SSDI before it was Web-based? Law enforcement
> has always used their own channels.

And now the PUBLIC has access to the information, so they
can help police their own communities.

>
> I'm talking about the public's ability to find data that used to
> require travel, or was hard to get without a warrant. The Web
> has introduced many portals for vigilante justice.

Justice nonetheless.

>
> And what of a person's legacy

A "legacy" has no rights under the law.

>and the concept of respecting the dead?

What "concept" is that, exactly? Why should/would a DEAD person
garner or deserve any more respect then they attained when alive?

>Should someone in a permanent coma lose privacy rights for
> similar reasons?

Are they DEAD ?

>At least give these ideas some thought.

Hardly, as you haven't iterated anything worth cogitation.


>
> NSZ


=> Vox Populi©

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Nov 26, 2006, 12:26:38 AM11/26/06
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LOL! And those pesky "privacy invading" obituaries that appear daily in
every newspaper in the U$$A ...


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