Maybe we stop using it as an identifier as it was never supposed to be?
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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Frankly suspect this was planned so people would panic-welcome a more draconian national identity system that makes them even easier to track and control.
Check the article first. It's not just SSNs that potentially got compromised.
You could reissue every social security number and Americans will still be fucked by this. Basically every piece of info used as security questions is part of this leak. Address, familial ties, banking info, etc.
We need to completely redo how we verify financial identity.
Cryptographic keys stamped into a piece of metal. Too bad our leaders are too incompetent
It has to be convenient and (user) error proof. NFC can do that, like... any other 1st world country has in its ID card.
Yeah the US still can't get Real ID rolled out even with literal fascists in charge
This is to create mayhem with people trying legitimize their identification papers to vote if they accomplish this quickly.
Yeah my first thought too was this is just a way to introduce voter id under the pretext of national security. It will create chaos, give plausible deniability for throwing out votes, sow doubt and fear, and prevent poor people from registering to vote. Business as usual, in other words.
Clickbait headline.
SSNs have been understood to not be a reliable “secret” for years and were never intended to be one.
The solution has always been to quite treating them that way, not to repeat the same mistake of creating yet another database full of new SSNs which would also be quickly compromised.
I don't think this remotely qualifies as a clickbait headline. The exact claim, word for word, is made by a sufficiently credible expert that they're citing in the article.
I'm not saying you can't disagree with the expert. By all means, make your case. But don't call it clickbait. This is absolutely valid reporting. Your disagreement is with the person they're reporting on, not the people doing the reporting.