The Joys of Being Canadian

[Paul Bradley]

> On a previous (shorter) stay in the US, I didn't have a SSN. Yet I got a
> DL (with my passport) (this was Missouri). And after a few long
> discussions on the phone on why I didn't have a SSN, I gave up the
> explanations and started giving my french SSN (after all, it was a valid
> answer to the question "what is your social security number"), actually
> a substring. Interestly enough, SSNs in France are not supposed to be
> used for identification or taxes purposes, just for medical purposes
> IIRC. A recent project by the government to link medical databases and
> tax database opened a controversial discussion...

It has not, until very recently, been common to use SSN or driver 
numbers in the UK as ID, I don`t know if they were or were not originally 
intended as ID in this country, I don`t think so, but was met with 
abusive argument and suspicion when I refused to give my SSN a few days 
ago as ID, look like the UK govt. is taking a leaf out of billy-bobs 
book, oh dear...

        Datacomms Technologies data security
       Paul Bradley, Paul at fatmans.demon.co.uk
  Paul at crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul at cryptography.uk.eu.org    
       Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/
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     "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"