Broken Borders, Violated Privacy, Personal Security, and the Questionable Need for Citizenship (Dreadfully Long and Involved)

Evidently the government and my own bank aren't going to answer my inquiries, so I am unable to include them in this post. Without further ado...
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For those already keeping score on this issue, let me say this: Lou Dobbs doesn’t know the HALF of it! The gaping holes and tunnels at our borders, the inability of our Congress to legislate meaningful immigration laws and security measures, and businesses willing and eager to hire illegals is only the beginning of this issue.

Here’s the other half of the story, starting with the paperwork:

• Our private information is all over the web, courtesy of state and federal government agencies. I thank The Virginia Watchdog for bringing it to our attention with her numerous TV segments on various news channels. Through her vigilance and determined scouting, she has been able to get to the root of the personal information posting issue—land records. Every time we buy, sell, remodel, or incur liens on homes, or do anything that might constitute a land transaction, our Social Security number is being splashed all over the web via title and mortgage documents—free for ID thieves to take. Different states have different definitions when it comes to determining what constitutes a “land transaction,” leaving us at their public records mercy.

• Ancestry and genealogy websites are places rife with full names and birthdates of living and dead people—it doesn’t take much to assemble a complete personal information file from there, and these sites are open to anybody.

• Illegal aliens and terrorists are already here in this country working in innocuous and “invisible” places—maintenance, office cleaning crews, nurse’s aids and candy stripers, renovation and refurbishment workers, mechanics, waiters, retail clerks, etc.—in prime places to seek out and collect personal information on citizens for their own use, or for selling to others. Sometimes whole computers are stolen in the quest for this information, as we have witnessed from the VA, various banks and insurance companies, and now Washington D.C. itself. No longer is there need for rooting through our garbage, dumpsters, mailboxes, or even cyberspace when you can get brand new Social Security numbers fresh off the maternity ward, vast arrays of numbers out of the cash drawer (from checks), or even swipe someone’s unencrypted laptop or labeled backup disks for later data mining.

• Now, the process has moved beyond these numbers to the point of audacity—you can now apply for (online) and receive an ITIN (individual taxpayer ID number) directly from the IRS for employment, credit, loans, etc., with no questions asked, and no background checks. No need to fear Uncle Sam any more—now you’re documented, and it only takes six weeks to do it.

• With an ITIN number, the world is almost your oyster: the only drawbacks that I can find are the inability to vote, the inability to claim an earned income credit, and the inability to pay into the Social Security system. You can still file taxes, get a return, and even take business write-offs if you’ve been lucky enough to become entrepreneurial. With today’s political climate and Social Security future, who’d WANT to be a part of voting and paying into a vanishing fund?

• Apparently the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy extends to more than just gays and lesbians—did you know that green cards are issued when a foreigner spends as little as 1 year in our military? After they are recruited (and yes, we actively recruit them), they spend time in a boot camp with citizenship and English classes before they ever receive a weapon, a uniform, or a citizenship application—then, they get paid the same as our own soldiers and sailors. When they successfully complete boot camp, they receive a green card—circumventing all those who’ve stood in line for years at the citizenship well. If entering shipboard or submarine naval service, they’ll never see a day of combat.

• While Congress fiddles over physical border security, immigration policy, and employer crackdowns, the U.S. is burning—nobody is acknowledging and plugging the many holes within for gaining entrance to “the good life.” To do so would be earning the moniker of “racist.” After all, who OWNS most of the businesses hiring the illegals in the first place? You guessed it—Congress critters! They either hire illegals personally for direct use, own the businesses that hire them, or pander to corporate interests that hire them (to ensure themselves votes and jobs after public life). Corruption always starts at the top.

It’s been said over and over that the ease of getting work here in America is the magnet for illegals. I say no, it isn’t—it’s the ease of getting access to work through stolen identification and ITIN numbers, courtesy of John & Jane Public and Uncle Sam. With all our wonderful laws and loopholes, who wouldn’t want to work here?

The pictorial manhole cover is coming off the underground economy—millions of formerly-unseen people were living and working well under the radar, and now the ranks have swollen to inevitable above-ground exposure. Even so, the problem can’t go back into the bottle, so to speak. The genie needs dealing with, and nobody’s willing to put an honest effort into successful control and management of the problem. Many sure are game to profit from it, though.

If ever there was a great time to back off from technology, this is it—for our privacy, if nothing else. Computers have done us more harm than good, if you ask me, especially when we’re giving away our entire lives through the use of them. Anyone can become anyone else at any time, and security is something you must create for yourself.

Who really NEEDS to become a citizen any more? The incentive is gone, because “the good life” can be led just fine without the designation, just by the myriad ways of cutting in line.

Carlos Mencia of Comedy Central’s “Mind of Mencia” show says: “The hardest part of living illegally is getting here.” He’s right—with an ITIN number or stolen ID, illegals have access to nearly as good a life as the rest of us without the need for full and legal citizenship. Why get in line and wait for years? That’s for suckers, and our own laws and regulations prove it!

What we as human beings can do to stop handing our lives over to ID thieves of any nationality looking for personal information:

• Stop giving it out! Before you fill out a form that asks for a SSN, ask why a Social Security number is needed in the first place. It’s only needed for tax reporting, Social Security reporting, and citizenship verification—that’s all. Nobody else needs your number, so stop giving it out. Anything credit-related does not need your number (especially your checks), and they are the ones most likely to lose your data, or worse, splash it all over the web. There is no such thing as a secure website or a secure computer these days—your ID privacy and security is up to you.

• Stop leaving it out! You need to go to your state’s county records website and check to see if you or your family’s numbers are available for web display via land-related documents, financial-related documents, or birth certificates, and take action to get them removed or blacked out. Then go to any genealogy sites you may have participated in, and remove any harmful information from there as well.

• Stop putting it in print for all to see! I’m talking specifically about your checkbook here—countless people put their SSN and driver’s license numbers on checks that are widely circulated anywhere a check is written. You never know who has access to the information contained on them, or what might be done with it. Talk about giving the personal information store away! All that’s missing is a photo, and ID thieves will happily substitute one of their own.

• Stop asking for trouble! Don’t put your business card into a “free lunch” bowl—ANYONE can take a card or two out, look a person up online, and assume an identity for any number of purposes—even remote computer access to corporate files. A well-known corporate security specialist went undercover and gained access to a worldwide conglomerate’s HQ and mainframe computer system with a simple business card grab from a local eatery’s free lunch jar—it was THAT easy! From there, he could access personnel records, and assume anyone else’s ID from the massive list, or worse—download the whole list and sell it. Carry your cards with you, and know who you give them away to—never leave them out for the taking, because you never know how your card information will be used afterward. That “free lunch” card could end up costing you more than you know.

• Stop taking people for granted! Ask to see some ID and make a call or two to verify identity. A crafty information thief can come disguised as a computer technician, a utility worker, a maid or housekeeper, the garbage man, the paperboy, or even the police. Hell, even someone next to you (while overhearing your phone conversations or watching keystrokes) can glean more information than you realize.

• For God’s sake, stop signing up your babies for Social Security! Those forms can be copied or stolen from someone’s office or hospital room very easily—and why does a baby need a number anyway? Nobody needs one until we begin employment, so why make it easy for someone to use your kid’s number? We wonder how our kids and pets become recipients of credit card offers, and now we know—those offers should be a big red flag for you, because someone’s got (and/or used) your child’s number and your pet’s name.

• Stop advertising in the paper! ID thieves watch the newspaper obituary pages and legal notices (for divorce and bankruptcy filings, etc.), and plan attacks accordingly, seeking out cyber-records, residential garbage cans, and/or nearby dumpsters. If you don’t put a credit freeze and a Social Security freeze on deceased relatives’ files, their information is ripe for the picking (see my blog article titled “No Rest From Identity Thieves Even After Death” http://tinyurl.com/npu5e).

Document fraud is rampant, to say the least, and any of our information is fuel for the fire. Anybody can become anybody else, legal or not, with the right information and perhaps a few clicks of a mouse—and anyone can become the victim just as easily. Breaches of security can be stopped, or at least slowed down, by using a few countermeasures—the first one being common sense. We all have something precious to hide, and that is our personal information. Don’t ask for trouble by tipping your hand. It’s no wonder we have such a huge illegal alien and terrorist problem—we practically give our entire lives away for free and don’t even know it!

It’s Wednesday—do you know where your personal information is, who has access, and how it might be used? It might be time to hit the “delete” or “encrypt” button on a few things, and bio-authenticate a few more. Don’t contribute to the illegal alien problem and to possible terrorists any more than you have to!