The other day I read an article on Consumerist about Target scanning drivers licenses when buying alcohol. This got me currious about what was encoded on the bar code and magnetic strip of my Louisiana drivers license. The magnetic strip proved to be pretty benign, it had the license number, name, and address, all pretty standard stuff. However when I checked the bar code I was shocked to find out that my social security number was encoded in it.
This is a pretty large privacy violation. Louisiana law requires that you provide your social security number when getting a drivers license, however you have the option of having it printed. Naturally most people do not have it printed due to the serious identity theft issues involved.
Does the State of Louisianna think no one will figgure this out? How can they knowingly put our idenities at risk by doing this? These are some of the questions I intend to get answers to and will provide updates.
tagged under: driver license.identiy theft.Louisiana.privacy
