Social Security Number study

Carnegie Mellon has done a study that shows it’s not hard to predict someone’s Social Security Number based on data that wouldn’t be hard to find. You can find a FAQ at this link.

and here’s the abstract of the study at this link.

Genealogists could be excited and concerned about their findings.

Excited ... It means we might have a new tool at tracking down relatives.

Concerned ... Legitimate privacy concerns could lead to stricter controls of data that’s currently public.

And of course, genealogists who are U.S. citizens ought to question whether their own privacy is at risk.

This bears watching.

doug