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Archiver > TMG > 2005-07 > 1120224821


From: Terry Reigel <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] OT - Living privacy (was: Transgender Change)
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 09:33:41 -0400
In-Reply-To: <LPBBJNIOBJEJOGJFMDGJGECLHDAB.ddburghart@cox.net>


On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 21:35:46 -0700, DeAnna Burghart wrote:

> I was much chastened,
> though, to find that simply typing their names into
> Google was enough to reveal mother's maiden names,
> father's maiden names, birthplaces, etc. ... all a result
> of my apparently naively overzealous documentation and
> trusting sharing of data as much as a decade ago. And the
> cat's out now. And if they're ripped off, I will be
> partially complicit, for making it so easy to obtain
> personal information that can be used to defraud or
> impersonate them. And there's not a damn thing I can do
> about it at this point.

Limiting myself to this one point - actually there is, or at least
something your husband can do. He can change the "security words" or
whatever they call them at each place that uses his mother's maiden
name. Many such places now offer choices, and I don't know that I
would want to do business with any that wouldn't if asked. In any
case, for new accounts, you can simply given them a different word
even if they insist on a maiden name, as I doubt they would try to
verify.

Terry Reigel

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