Is This Helpful?

Clearly we have a problem with personal data being far too available to bad actors.

It's wonderful to hear that individual activists are making a point of pushing the issue to the forefront of debate (although I don't know what to make of the proposals being discussed in the article, since alternatives are not cross-compared.)

But is it really necessary to get attention by posting the personal information of prominent political leaders? And did the Post help matters by making it so easy to find this woman's site?

(By the way, the blurb on the Post's home page refers to "activists." But I only see mention of one woman who's actually engaged in this behavior.)

Comments

[nitish]

sometimes (out-of-touch) politicos don't grasp the severity of a problem until it is personalized.
for example, a witness before the House Homeland Security Committee presented fake mexican ID cards in the name of committee members and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed(!).
while perhaps drastic, shock and/or shame sometimes serve as effective tools.

[Ron Hardin]

SS numbers used to be public. People wore them on their badges where I worked, they were on tax form mailings and other mailing labels, and so forth. The trouble is that somebody started using them for other identification. All that's needed is to stop doing that.

High tech doesn't make it _harder_ to identify people without using SS numbers. There's no reason to screw up life to make it easier for high tech. That's backwards.

[dauber]

The shocking IDs you mention, note, were FALE. An excellent demo, but at the end of the day, no harm, no foul.

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