11mo ago

Good luck!

270 comments

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.
  
  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.
  
  That's the thing. At this point, anything that could replace ssn cards will be much more technical and much more invasive.
  
  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.
- For real. Mine's about 40 years old and still looks pretty mint.
- 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 ~~dead~~ laminated may never die.
  
  We've really gotta regulate these laminators.
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  Always paint over sensitive information.
  Not in PDF tho. There, the stroke is saved in metadata..
- 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.

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.
  
  They were letting you know you have brite ideas!
  
  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.
  Also, you can get a FREE replacement.
  
  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.
- Lack of fiber in the diet
- 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.
- 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 ~~awful~~ hurt people
  Some are less familiar with kindness than others.
- 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
- Shit.
- True story if you run out of attempts they give you a poncho and deport you to Australia

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.
- My wife found out you can get one earlier as long as your parents sign off on it. They then used her social security to scam some loans while she's a child, which fucked her up later when she moves out on her own and tried to get an apartment.
  
  This is extremely common, and one of the reasons that using SSN for credit reports is a horrible practice. The only way for someone to dispute the debts is to report their parents to the authorities, which is a horrible position to be in when you’re freshly 18. The real solution would be a simple age check, to verify if the person applying for the loan is actually 18. But that ~~is apparently too difficult~~ would prevent banks from saddling literal children with mountains of debt.
- 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.
  
  Yeah, I was born in 80 and have had it since birth.
  
  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.

Why are you not allowed to laminate it?
- That would make it much easier to fake it
  
  How?

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

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.
  
  There are no security features on a ss card.
  
  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.
  
  You never had a job in your entire life?
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
- because i said so
  -Gov'ment
  
  I laminated mine, never had an issue.
  Punish me, daddy government
- 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.
- You can. This is a myth.
  
  Try using a laminated ss card to get a drivers license. (Real ID).

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

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.

What’s the reason behind not being allowed to laminate it? Asking as a non American
- Because it’s meant to biodegrade if lost outside so your identity is harder to steal
  
  Normal countries: "there is a picture on the ID to make it harder to use someone else's"
  USA: "it's so flimsy no one will use it for fear of it falling apart"
- You aren't allowed to laminate the card, because the card says do not laminate.
  
  Mine is old enough that it doesn't say not to laminate it... I laminated it... lol
- I've been asking that as an American my whole life, I don't know if anyone really knows
  
  Everyone knows. You're not supposed to laminate it so if it gets lost it will biodegrade instead of being perfectly preserved for someone to steal your identity with.
  Just don't keep it in your wallet in the first place. There's a very limited number of times you should need to have it.
- That's United States property and cannot be modified in any way.
  The given reason is that you can't see the security features on the card if it's laminated.
  
  security features
  In anything related to SSN?
  Lol
  
  Well they do tell you to sign it, you know so if it stolen they can have that too, so there is one little modification they want. Also taring from a larger piece of paper might count.
  
  Makes sense, thanks!

Slip it into one of the thicker plastic baseball card sleeves. It's a perfect fit, can be easily pulled out, and provides excellent protection.

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 😔

don't you americans have plastic version's also, or did i get it wrong?
- The idea is that if it gets lost outside somewhere, then the paper will degrade to the point that it's no longer readable. You can always get another card if you lose yours.
  
  Not always.
  The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004 (Public Law 108-458 ) limits the number of replacement SSN cards an individual may receive to 3 per year and 10 in a lifetime, beginning with cards issued on or after December 17, 2005.
  
  Shitty for us dungeon dwellers. We don't go outside but coffee stains are a real threat.
  
  Hmm, that actually makes a great point. I thought America was just cheap.
- Nope, no plastic... Just a cardboard print it.

I understand social security to mean paying into a state pension, a national healthcare service, and provision of education.
What does social security mean in the American context?
- Irrelevant to the topic at hand. This is a social security card, which displays your social security number, which is the closest thing we have to a national ID. It is used for all things financial and for identity verification & background checks. If someone gets your name, address, and social security number, you can be in for a real bad time.
  
  Which is unfortunately easy to do. There are some of those search sites that include SSNs on them. Haven't seen one that detailed in a few years, but still. Just today I found a site that had addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and relatives. All accurate and all freely available, no registration required.
- Depends on who you ask. For millennials and younger, it means paying lots of money into a service that will be dissolved before we get to tap into it.
  It's also a number that's supposed to be kept secure or something, but applying for pretty much anything requires you to provide it.
  
  Yeah, it became a sort of federal identification since the US government didn't want to make a federal ID and now we are stuck with a much more inferior system than if they just did anything. Since everyone got a SS card it became the de facto ID.
- In the US Social Security is retirement income. SS tax comes out of every paycheck then when you retire you will get monthly income. So state pension but none of the other good stuff.
- It was originally just a number to track contributions to quasi-pension system. However, because it was the only number universally assigned to people, it stated getting used way more often, most notably for credit issuers and reporting agencies.
- Thanks all for your replies!
- It pays the state pension which is good for a tiny fraction of retirement.
  
  Depends what your spending is like. Someone who earns like 30K/year should get about 65% of their earning if they retire at 65. You'd have to save like another $1500/year (including company matches) to make up the difference.
  If I kept working til I was like 70 and my pay only keeps up with inflation, I'd get about 130% of my spending via social security.

“This single plain-text string of characters defines your entire identity in the eyes of the government, creditors, health care, everything. Good luck keep it safe!”
- Please don't give your SSN to health care institutions, they don't need it. They like to ask for it on their intake forms so that they can find you more easily if they need to send your debt to collections, but most will accept a blank entry anyways.

I've had mine laminated for almost fifty years.
- Your SS card doesn't look a day over 40. <3
  
  Your SS card
  So they moved away from tattoos huh
  
  Aww
  Oh you

I'm pretty sure that they removed the restriction on lamination at some point. But I'm not really sure.
- You can make a copy and laminate the copy.

Canada issues their SSN cards in hard plastic, which IME is far superior to any credit card plastic. It’s been in my wallet since 1990 and while it looks old, it’s in better shape than almost all of my credit cards - none of which are older than 5 years.

I've kept mine in a tight card slot in a leather wallet for longer than some of these commentators have been alive and it honestly still looks great.
- Anyone else imagining this as the wallet
  
  Yeah that's the one, they don't make them like that anymore.

SSA will give you a free replacement card. I think TRUMP wanted to charge money for it, but not sure if that plan went through.
- Only up to 10 in your lifetime though:
  https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0110205400
  
  There are a few (difficult, but possible) ways to get extra copies despite the limit though, like changing your name
  
  But weirdly only if it was issued after 2005?
- Why is Trump in all capitals?
  
  That's how the man himself writes his name.
  Are you assuming his capitalisation?

There was a fad a long while ago where people would get their number stamped onto a metal card. Only ever got to see one of them after years working at a casino where we collected SSNs for jackpot payouts.
- Where I live people just have the number memorized. Fairly easy when it's just date-of-birth and some three numbers and a letter.

Scanning is allowed? A photo?
- Any verification requires the physical document.
  
  That’s just plain stupid... Get a federal ID already like most countries.

I never knew you couldn’t laminate them? Why would they do something like that?

Get married and change your last name! You'll get a brand new one. Works for men too, trust me!
- You don't even have to get married just file name change paperwork
  
  Or, you can just order a new one without changing your name.

like, you can get a new one though to be fair, I just got a brand new one, granted it was after legally changing my name but I'm certain you can just have one reprinted without a name change, I don't even think it costs anything.
I also don't understand carrying it around, my partner does, but I just have my number memorized, and the card itself is kept safe, for the few times in my life I will need the actual physical card.

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