My mom laminated mine when I was like 6 years old. It still has my 6 year-old, childish signature on it. Every time I use it someone says “you’re not supposed to laminate these”, and then they accept it anyways. So who’s the fool now?
My ex’s dad laminated his whole ass birth certificate. He had a bitch of a time fixing that lmao.
Though I think people ask for birth certificate less often than they do our SIN (and also our SIN cards are actual literal cards in Canada not just pieces of paper).
I always thought my birth certificate was the little vanity one with my feet prints on it. I learned it isn’t when I actually needed a birth certificate for the first time. Since I live in an entirely different State now it was a bit of a PITA to get the real one.
They stopped issuing cards and just print it on a full 8.5"x11" piece of paper now actually lol.
Not to defend the social security number system (because it’s terrible for unique identification of individuals and when it was created it wasn’t even intended to be used for that purpose) but you’re not supposed to carry it around with you all the time. It’s supposed to be in a drawer/safe/fireproof bag with the rest of your important documents, and only brought out when you need it.
Why make it a card then? If it’s meant to be stored as a document then it should be the size of an envelope, or a standard A4 sheet.
I keep mine attached to the envelope sized paper it came on. But it shouldn’t be a card shape, that encourages people to carry it. My grandpa always carried his.
Don’t mention A4 paper, it scares the Americans. If any of them could read, they would be very afraid right now.
A4
Is that a type of rifle? I’ll take 12!
Using entirely reasonable standards that most of the rest of the world has adopted is too hard for us for some reason.
Today I’m going to use paper to feel superior to someone else.
To be fair, simply not having to live in the US already gives that rush.
Amateur, we professionals don’t have to use anything for that
This week on “Things Non-Americans Think Americans Don’t Know About!”
Right?
Like just because we export all our media to you (because it’s better) and make fun of our stereotypes in that media, doesn’t mean that most of us are like that. Believe it or not we actually have cool stuff that’s uniquely American.
And the reason you see Kraft singles is because we don’t want to share our BBQ with you.
export all our media to you (because it’s better)
Lmao. Get back to me when you’ve got something like Taskmaster, Would I Lie To You, or QI.
We can’t do everything for you guys. We’re holding down the imperial system almost single handedly. Help a brother out.
You’re proving my point though? Those all look like C rate game shows that show up in the worst time slots here in the states.
If you said Doctor who, like 15 years ago, then I’d give you a solid maybe.
look like
Yeah that’s an American problem. Preferring a glossy looking garbage over something non-glamorous but substantial.
FYI I’m neither American nor European.
American here, you’re straight up wrong. We have no equivalent to their panel shows. Comparing them to game shows is like comparing open heart surgery to being stabbed.
America has the Squid Games reality show and Mr Beast. They’re kind of like Taskmaster if the point of Taskmaster was dangling life changing money in front of poor people.
They’re nothing like Taskmaster then lmao.
Idk. Maybe because there’s only a few pieces of info on it. Someone would say “why do you need to use a whole sheet of paper for just this?”
Every time ya try to fix the NatID problem though suddenly it’s a surveillance state system and not just an efficient nexus for federal services and permissions.
There are some people who don’t want a national ID system because they think that’s like a biblical prophecy. Somehow those people are still allowed to operate heavy machinery.
Some people don’t want it because they don’t want a functional government.
Ain’t that the truth. Fuckin’ lunatics.
That’s the thing. At this point, anything that could replace ssn cards will be much more technical and much more invasive.
No, it would be less technical since it would cut down the number of cards you have to carry around, and be less invasive since it would drastically raise the difficulty of identity theft
Eh… You guys all use credit cards anyway
They voluntarily put webcams in their houses with several known security issues which transmit everything open in the cloud. And they purposefully have a listening device which transmits to Amazon whatever they talk about in order to be able to listen to music without having to use a mouse or tap on a screen.
But having an ID with a photo on it? That’s where they put the line
oooo yeah my ID card is so invasive, it has my birth date and a photo on it!
Does it even matter when data brokers already know everything about you and happily sell that info?
People freak about national IDs while happily giving all their info to websites like amazon or facebook. It’s insane.
We have the same issue in Australia, and your driver’s licence basically fills the same purpose.
But honestly, we should just have a national ID system, and just make it optional, like a driver’s licence already is… (You just get asked for other forms of ID)
I’ve lost my place to stay more than I’ve lost my wallet.
It’s also techinally illegal to use for identification unless it’s being used for tax purposes. Yet so many people illegally ask for it and barely anyone protests. https://www.justice.gov/opcl/overview-privacy-act-1974-2020-edition/ssn
Somebody laminated my birth certificate. But what are they going to do about it, unborn me? Wait… will they?
Edit: What if somebody laminates my death certificate? 😭
That’s how zombies are created.
What is
deadlaminated may never die.“Comimg soon: RE-LAMINATOR!”
We’ve really gotta regulate these laminators.
Never going to happen. The lamination lobby has deep pockets.
They could make you go get another one when you try to use it, which is a pain in the ass.
How often are you even using your death certificate? I mean, yeah, the discount at Disneyworld is a sweet deal, but otherwise?
Late but I think it’ll depend where you are and what security features birth certificates where you are have. Where I am, the paper has a unique feel to it and also has one of those little hologram type sticker things on the back. So I imagine laminating it would cause issues in official circumstances where they want to feel the paper. Also not sure if it’d affect the sticker things or not, but the heat from the laminator could cause damage if done wrong
But if the BDM department where you are is lazy and literally just print your info onto an official looking piece of paper, I’d argue the point. I don’t see what laminating it would do in that situation, although when it comes to government departments, they don’t tend to be very flexible. If you were just showing it to verify your identity or working rights for a job or something I doubt anybody would refuse it in either situation
I’ve heard blur is not destructive. Please use a paintbrush on 100% opacity if you do this
When I post pictures with blurred information, I replace the info with something trollish and then blur it. Nobody appreciated that so far. :(
Depends on the kind of blur. Some kinds can indeed be almost perfectly removed if you know the used blurring function, others are destructive. But, yes, don’t take that chance. Always delete/paint over sensitive information.
Source: we had to do just that in a course I took a long time ago.
I prefer sampling the surroundings, typing out a different number or text over it, then blurring with a non destructive effect.
Name: Phil McCracken
SSN: EAT-MY-NUTS
Just for anyone who tries
Signature: …
Ah man, I remember when they caught some pedo creep who used a non-destructive blur on the CSAM materials he produced that included his face. So satisfying.
He only spiral blurred his face… So they just did it in the opposite direction. It was beyond stupid
wouldn’t you also need to know in what kind of pattern the blur was applied. I am sure if you do it multiple times starting from multiple non identical partitioning of the region, it will be impossible.
You’re severely underestimating the power of weaponized autism.
I’ve switched to a mosaic blur. Looks neat and always destructive.
Actually not always, there is a script that can recover text from mosaic’d screenshots if the font and pixellation technique is known. I just use a fake mosaic – the easiest way is to paste a bitmap of non-confidential text from elsewhere in the screenshot and then apply the filter.
Thanks for that.
I’m glad I use really huge pixels though. Would be hard to crack these:
Why do people downvote posts like this? What’s the problem? It’s funny, true, and in the right community.
Some people just downvote for weird reasons, so I figure it’s not worth worrying about. Someone once told me they were downvoting every post I share that has bright colors because they use dark mode… Lol
I always flip a coin for whether I upvote or downvote. It’s not really about trying to make a decision, I’m just trying to get my thumbs in shape for that thumb wrestling tournament I have coming up.
Sometimes I feel an odd catharsis from simply existing on the internet, and this comment captures a lot of why
Sometimes, I try to swipe to go back and accidentally up or downvote things.
Because they are being stupid. You are not supposed to carry it with you. You only take it when you need to for something like the DMV. Otherwise it should just be filed away. A social security card is NOT ID.
Thanks for the link! The last time I looked into replacing my long lost SSA card the government was much less “online” and it was going to involve spending money and traveling long distances. Thanks to you, I’m expecting a letter from SSA in the next few weeks to confirm my ID, and then I’ll get a new card issued.
Some people just need a reason to hate and avoid any personal accountability. They’ll take anything they can get, they’ve had a shitty day/year/life and somehow beating up on a faceless stranger feels morally acceptable to them. The truth is, they are in fact just awful people, looking to justify their shitty behavior by correcting grammar or downvoting a complete stranger. Trying their damndest to avoid looking in the mirror. Whilst the rest of us humans, have a shitty day but roll with it. Because if you can’t let it roll off, you will never be happy.
Yes, however
they are in fact just
awfulhurt peopleSome are less familiar with kindness than others.
Except it’s not true. Social Security cards are useless for identification purposes. I haven’t seen my SS card in 30 years. I’ve never been asked for it or needed it in any way for at least that long. 
It’s funny, true, and in the right community.
That’s never stopped anybody before.
Seriously, more than once I’ve posted something completely benign, innocuous, and appropriate in a niche community that gets maybe one post a month, and that post receives a score of -10 or something. I don’t understand it, but if you want niche communities to thrive, you have to quit caring about downvotes.
Personally, I think that they should only have upvotes, because downvotes are a negative experience for users, and they’re too easy to game. You can have bots, sock puppets, you name it. And having a post with a negative score tells you nothing about why it has a negative score. Was it offensive? Who knows?
Some servers only allow upvotes. Some only show local downvotes, so it at least minimizes their impact.
Fun fact, there is a lifetime limit for the number of replacements you can get for these (I forget but I think it’s like 12), if you lose too many no more social security card for you
It’s not impossible, just harder. They’re going to need documentation for it.
But SSN is the root of all identity documentation, except birth certificate I guess
Well it’s more like proving you need it issued again. Although they are going to ask for supporting ID documents too.
True story if you run out of attempts they give you a poncho and deport you to Australia
Shit.
I’m getting “wallet” vibes which should absolutely not be where one keeps important documents. I had mine in a shoe box under my bed as a teen and it survived unscathed.
Heck, I have a 15 year old free pizza stamp card from a shop that permanently closed in better condition. Haha!
Edit: someone came through and downvoted every comment for the heck of it? Haha! Youuu get an updoot, and yooou get an updoot… etc.
Hopefully you’ll get to cash in that stamp card one day! Give it another 15 years.
I got mine in 1986 and it pretty much looks like the picture.
Fun side note: back then, you didn’t get a social security number until you were old enough to get a job. I was fourteen when I got my social security number.
LOL, no. I was born in '71 and my parents got me one immediately. I remember them showing me as a child and thinking, “Why do I care about this?”
Good for you and your parents, but it wasn’t common until 1986 when Reagan’s new tax code suddenly required social security numbers for dependents. It was 1987 when they started rolling it out as part of the birth at the hospital.
Your lol no tone implies I don’t remember my own teen years.
You said we didn’t get ss numbers until we got jobs and we said no.
Yeah, I was born in 80 and have had it since birth.
Same.
I mean, for sure you could. In my country would didn’t get an ID card/number until you needed to get a job or travel by plane. I got mine when I was 12. But nowadays babies always get their I’d card after birth.
Plastic sleeve, boom problem solved, I’m 34 and I’ve only ever had one birth certificate because I keep it in a sleeve.
But hopefully y’all Americans can phase out the physical cards like we did in Canada.
I’m 39 but I had to pay for a new copy of my birth certificate in my 20s because mine was literally falling apart due to just being old and folded up and printed on weird paper and the seal was messed up so the dmv wouldn’t take it
I got it from my mom like that :x
Why are you not allowed to laminate it?
That would make it much easier to fake it
How?
They can’t run it under a tap and see if it falls apart like a real one
That’s a joke right, not something American authorities do?
Yes. It’s a joke. But it is a special type of cardboard-like paper that they use, which is crappy to save money.
The explanation I’ve heard, is if you lose it (outside), you want it to decompress; not float around eternally for someone to fake your Identity with.
Wait are we supposed to carry these around? I became a permanent resident back in 2010 and I don’t think I’ve ever taken mine out of my filing cabinet.
No, you don’t need to carry it around. Memorizing it and keeping it safe for the few occasions you do need the card itself is fine.
When do you ever need it? I just remember the number. I don’t think I’ve ever had to scan
The last several jobs I have taken, they’ve wanted a scan of it for tax purposes.
I think it’s ironic how this super private personal number that is unique to you and not to be shared is what you have to share with every job, college, financial institution, etc.
This is why I think that temporary SSNs should be a thing . It would be a number that links to your real SSN and would be used to verify your identity, but would stop working after a day or two. That way if a company has a data breach, any SSNs that get stolen would no longer work.
Real ID drivers licenses. In Minnesota it’s one of the forms they accept and if it’s laminated… They say… No
Interesting, my wife and I just got Real IDs in Maryland and didn’t take our social security cards…but now that I think about it, we used our passports for ID, so maybe that’s why.
Been a while but I do believe that was another option for that section if the requirements
I-9 if you don’t have the other stuff it asks for. Generally need to fill one out at every new job. https://www.uscis.gov/i-9
Oh, I use my passport
Someone explain to me why we can’t laminate it.
Security features used to verify the validity get covered when you add a plastic film.
I’ve been asked for the number many times, of course, but I didn’t think I’ve ever had to show my physical card to someone in my entire life.
Every job I’ve had has made a copy of the card for payroll/tax purposes.
And this is where the weirdness starts. I’m in Canada and early in I learned from a relative who was in government and finances told me that your SSN is only meant for the government and government services and nothing else.
Banks, companies or corporations do not need to see your SSN no matter what they say. The number was only ever supposed to be used with the government, taxation, government benefits and services.
Banks and companies just started using it as a shortcut to identify people and connect them to government services and taxation. But it was never a requirement, no matter what they said. It’s the banks and the companies job to verify who you are.
I started my bank accounts as a teen in the 90s and with a bit of help, I was able to start them without a submitting a SSN. Every job I had, I actively refused to submit a SSN and told them why which with a bit of arguing they agreed. Funny part is, even though I never submitted one, the bank and every major employer I had already had the number anyway.
Your employer pays a portion of your social security taxes and generally withholds your portion to give to the government on your behalf. How do they correctly do that without your social security number?
From the link you’ve provided.
Documents that may be used under “List C” of the I-9 to establish employment eligibility include:
- A U.S. Social Security card issued by the Social Security Administration
- birth certificate issued by the U.S. State Department
- Etc
I’ve scanned my driver’s license but never my social security card!
There are no security features on a ss card.
https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0110201060
One or more of the following security features appear on SSN cards issued since 10/31/1983:
• Tamper-proof background
• Color-shifting ink
• Intaglio printing in some areas on the front of the card
• Latent image on the face of the card visible only when viewed at specific angles
• Red fluorescent nine-digit alphanumeric number on back (beginning February 1996)
• Intaglio microtext in signature line (when magnified, the line is actually letters spelling out SOCIAL SECURITY)
• Yellow, pink, and blue planchettes (small discs) randomly displayed on the front and back of the card
• Anti-copy pattern that is discernable when the card is photocopied
• For original cards, a dash in each column on the same line as the SSN
• Date the card is issued [i.e., Cycle Date (CYD) from the Numident] is printed under the signature line on the face of the card (beginning April 2007).
That’s interesting, I had no idea they modernized it.
But none of that is on in the photo. Mine doesn’t have that either. (Pre 1983)
Same. But mine still says not to laminate.
So glad I was born in ‘82 so I could avoid all this security stuff
I’ve had to provide the physical card at the start of most jobs I’ve had. What’s that form you fill out? I-9?
Looking at the list of required documents, I may have used a passport at some point as that appears to trump everything, but mine has long since expired and I haven’t been bothered to get a new one.
The jobs I’ve had have been w9 or 1099
I needed two forms of ID for my current job and I used my license and passport
The intent is for it to completely disintegrate by the time you need to claim benefits and can’t remember your SSN.
j/k, the completely disintegrating part is true, the last part is that there won’t be any SSN benefits by the time Gen Y and later gets around to retiring.
The whole design of the SS system is that current workers pay benefits for current retirees. The trust fund was created later in preparation for retiring boomers.
At worst, it goes back to the original system and benefits get reduced to match what workers are putting in. That might be as high as a worst case 20% reduction, but it’s not going to go away entirely. As others have mentioned, even that is completely avoidable.
There will be benefits. Congress has at least five courses of action they can take but will just leave it till the last minute for drama and to make people vote.
This is right wing rhetoric meant to convince people that cuts to social programs are needed as a way to make social services solvent, fyi.
Social security is funded by the current tax payers, taxes were raised so that the social security could have some extra money to buy us bonds, allowing them to cash in those bonds later when boomers retire en masse. Eventually the bonds will be gone and social security will be ‘insolvent’ but this is ok! Social security is always being paid into and social security can be paid out with general funds, or by increased tax rates, or by increasing the cap on SS taxes.
There is not actually any indication that social security is going anywhere other than Republican fear mongering.
I believe the primary reason is that there are counterfeiting counter measures, and if you laminated it, it would make it hard to use verification methods that allow you to make sure it’s a real one. They want to know that it is not copied, altered, or otherwise illegally fabricated.
Also, it should be noted that this is an identification card that can allow you to do crazy things like apply for official documents and loans. This number is extremely helpful for people wanting to steal your identity. I believe the idea is that if you lose it, it should degrade and disintegrate so you can get a new one without worrying that your identity will be stolen. Although, this is just my speculation.
Also, you’re not really supposed to carry it around with you, the ideas that you would put this in a safe document storage place until you need it for something specific.
presumably to be able to verify it’s the correct material/has the right anti-counterfeiting stuff?
I googled it, they say it might obscure security features which would mean it wouldn’t be accepted. They recommend a plastic case that can be removed.
And also how one can unlaminate it (asking for a friend)
Stick it in your microwave oven on high for about 10 minutes.
I’ve heard that it was in the event you lost it, it would eventually disintegrate from the weather. It always to help prevent it from being used by others if found.
Oh, you forgot the part where you are only allowed a fixed number of replacements in your lifetime.
10 in your life. 3 each year.
deleted by creator
Yep. There’s no reason to carry this around with you on the daily. Stick it in a file in a safe file box of some sort. I can’t remember the last time someone asked for a physical SS card…maybe when we applied for my kids’ passports? No idea.
Maybe OP applies for a lot of jobs and is brown enough to be told they need to actually see it? Iunno
I work at a DMV. I have seen 10 yr old cards shredded to shit and 80 year cards in near mint condition. If great grandpappy can do it, yall can too.
back in high school I stuck mine in a hard plastic card case. Wherever it is now that I lost it, should at least be in good shape almost 30 years later.
I can confirm that it is indeed in great shape!
man, not everyone has an easy life 😔
