U.S. State Department adding intrusive questions for US passport apps | Hacker News Reader

U.S. State Department adding intrusive questions for US passport apps

boingboing.net

16 points4midori11 comments

commenters on that site have pointed out that this 'intrusive questionaire' would only be required if you can't provide a birth certificate

And BB posted a weasely response to that.

you know what i'm going to say...

Going to finally confess to actually being from New Jersey? We need you to show proof.

And look what I found: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/poll-fin...

Novelty accounts do not belong on Hacker News.

Exactly, from what I cant tell, this would make it easier to get a passport w/o a birth certificate since rather than deal with a traditional "bureaucratic investigation" (as BB calls it) you can fill this out in an afternoon.

And of course if you don't happen to know all these details (who the hell does?) then you write "unknown".

If you do have the misfortune to be a legit US citizen without a birth certificate then you gotta throw the passport office a bone. You don't need to know the names of the persons present, but if you did then it'd help them verify your identity. Nor do you have to have been baptised, but if you were then they can look that up too.

In conclusion, this is just the random internet-media beatup of the day. Someone should write an article about the life cycle of these.

So was said that Social Security Number will be used for tax purposes only and now is the de facto personal identification method. This looks like a gambit to me

They said the Social Security card was not be used for identification. They didn't say the number could not be so used.

See: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/141/why-does-my-old...

From the above article:

"As a result of all these changes, the "not to be used for identification" line was dropped from the cards and a lot of places will accept them as proof of identity. You just can't call them national identity cards, or at least the feds can't, because if they do the right wing will freak."

Reminds me of the old adage: "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck"

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