• RotatingParts
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    8 months ago

    Why is AT&T even using Social Security numbers?

      • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        I haven’t been a customer for like ten years. And they only needed the ss number ten years before that. Why the hell did they retain that info after the credit check? Why the hell did they retain it after I stopped using their service?

        • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Every major cell provider offering non pre-paid service does this. You run your credit when you open the account, but they can hold on to the info in that credit app indefinitely. Usually it’s kept on file to make sure no one else attempts to open an account using your info. If a new app gets run with your social and they already have an account with that social, the new credit app gets flagged for review.

        • Urist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 months ago

          If you give your ss number out, you should assume the company will save it forever and misuse it.

          We have ss numbers from customers dating back at least 15 years. It saves us time if they come back, that’s the only reason they’re kept that long (to my knowledge). It’s a casino, we need ss if you win enough to pay taxes. So, we do need to keep them for some length of time.

          But, ss are visible to most customer service staff that handle reward cards (starting pay is the defacto minimum wage for the area for some of those roles, btw).