Black Hat: Your Social Security Number Can Be Predicted With Online Information, Say Researchers

Well now, this just bums me out. Plus, here's more. At a certain point in time the US government began requiring social security numbers for children in order for them to be claimed as tax deductions. Siblings that were registered at the same time may have consecutive ending numbers if the paperwork was processed together. Randomizing would have been a better system.

Next thing you know someone will be suggesting tattoos (on the hand or forehead, of course) that only show up under ultraviolet light or implantable information chips. Well guess what? Those could be hacked or forged, too. Still, it is sad to see how vulnerable our private information may be.

I'm giggling at the Kontera text ads all over your comment. Who knew you meant for the words 'private information' to be an advertisement for cuff links?:)

Kontera sucks and if Topix needs the extra $.25 per thousand readers, that's okay, but it's some higher level of annoying.

I am surprised Google doesn't tank companies that put text links in comments like that.

That's weird, I don't see them. Those ads are definitely annoying though, in an almost surrealistic way.

But hey, private information and cuff links go together like um ... um ... okay I just don't see the connection.

Some sites do subscribe to the ads and I see them, but I wonder if I don't see them here because I'm on a Mac using Firefox. I used to see them a lot more using IE on my PC. I also wonder if it was related to the browser or some spyware that Avast let slip by. But if so, who got the (minuscule) payoff?

I do see ads for "Local Vida Deals" from Sears here. Which is funny, as Sears is 45 miles away. My town is too small to have any real local deals, although the cafe has excellent pie.

Speaking of Kontera, their claim is "Monetize Your Blog with Kontera In-Text Ads" but it's more like Moronize.

P.S. Currently my profile page has 2 pest ads on it (should I be offended?) and my hometown has a link to an ad (in German) showing a woman holding a scary-looking dead red fish that I think she plans to decapitate. http://ewe.at/de/kuechenmodelle/trendsetter

I have known for years that the first three digits of an SS number indicated in which state you lived when you applied. Since parents now need an SSN for their babies to claim them on their taxes, that is the state in which they were born.

As for me, I was born in one state and applied for an SSN in another (my three digits indicates that state). My sister was born in England and her SSN has the same first three digits as mine. We applied at the same time.
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I'm on a Mac with Safari and I rarely see the Kontera ads. You're right, though, that they never have to do with the word(s) they highlight.