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Comment by rickydroll | Hacker News Reader

I always say no. I can get away with it in every case except banks and loans.

At the same time, anytime a company asks for your birthdate, give them a fake one. I frequently use my mom's birthday and a sibling's birth year so I can remember it.

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Banking is actually a rare case where it makes sense because they legitimately need your TIN (taxpayer ID number). For businesses this is the same as their EIN (employee ID number) so no big deal.

What's problematic that ought to be fixed is that for individuals your TIN is just your SSN. Lazy. We ought to just issue personal TINs the first time you file taxes.

There's a spike in births on Jan 1st if website records are to be trusted.

An something like 10% of the population lives in Beverly Hills.

And one heckuva party line on 867-5309

In pretty much any store that has rewards account that you have to punch in a phone number (like a drug store, gas station, grocery), I use this number. Someone has always created one.

I do exactly the same. There are a few situations where you really need to provide your SSN, but outside of those, I tell whoever's asking that I won't provide one. 95% of the time, they're ready for that and will create an ID number for me.

In the few times when someone who doesn't have a legitimate need for my SSN but insists on getting it anyway, I give them Richard Nixon's: 567-68-0515

Successful with cell phone service providers?

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