Interesting Links for 07-10-2017

[andrewducker]

Decades of Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Harvey Weinstein

(tags: sex harassment movies )

Replacing Social Security Numbers Is Harder Than You Think

(tags: identity security )

Model Arvida Byström gets rape threats after an advert featured her hairy legs

(tags: abuse women bodies OhForFucksSake )

Here's How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled White Nationalism Into The Mainstream

(tags: racism usa media )

Bank Behind Fearless Girl Statue Settles Gender Pay Dispute with 300 women

(tags: banking gender inequality usa art OhForFucksSake )

Amber Rudd: UK viewers of online terrorist material face 15 years in jail

(tags: terrorism uk video law )

Mass Shooters Aren’t Disproportionately White (but are disproportionately male)

(tags: guns violence usa gender race )

Virgin Care asks staff not to report safety concerns to health watchdog

(tags: care safety OhForFucksSake virgin )

Comments

[calimac]

Harvey Weinstein: Wow, and I'd presumed that such blatant use of the "casting couch" was a thing of the past. As with the continuance of blatant Jim Crow-era racism, live and learn.

SSNs or "Socials" (as they're often called, the former pronounced with the initials, and an American better recognize either term when the flunky on the phone uses it): good point that anything we used to replace it would have the same problems. Does the UK have an equivalent basic ID number?

Breitbart: At the point where the guy says he didn't see the Nazi salutes because of his myopia, my eyes rolled up so far I could no longer continue reading the article.

Mass shooters: Fascinating statistics. They aren't disproportionately white from the population, but public ones are disproportionately white among shooters. And, of course, they're male. The article below it, by one of Slate's most thoughtful writers, is even more interesting.

[danieldwilliam]

I think the closest we come to a basic ID number is the National Insurance number, which is a payroll tax registration number that you get when you turn 16 (or first get a job).

I don't think it is as commonly used as the SSN is in the USA.

[calimac]

That sounds as if its purpose is very close to what the SSN's original purpose was. The SSN was designed to track your payroll earnings so as to record your eligibility for Social Security payouts in retirement. Accordingly, people without payroll jobs didn't need one.

But as gradually most adults joined the workforce, it occurred to bureaucrats some 20-30 years ago that this was the only federal-government ID number that most people had, and it became a de facto national ID. (Most other widespread govt registrations - birth, driving - are handled by the states and consequently vary in format and rules.)

The culture of the SSN consequently changed. Now even babies need one. Also, it used to be casually public info; now everyone must keep theirs a deep dark secret.

[danieldwilliam]

Yes, I think the purpose of the National Insurance number and SSN were originally pretty close.

National Insurance used to operate more like an actual paid for unemployment and health insurance system than a more or less universal payroll tax for more or less universal social security so your NI number also tracked entitlements.

I'd expect a variety of government or serious organisation to legitimately ask me for my NI number. I wouldn't random strangers to know it. I think the only organisation that would routinely use it as primary ID would be Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs - who are the people who issue the number.

[calimac]

It's not like random strangers would ask for your SSN, though if they wanted it it wasn't hard to get. (It isn't hard to get now, either, because it's in so many ID databases.) The way things used to be, before the SSN was your ID code, was you might share it casually as you would, say, your blood type or your middle name, as just a random bit of personal information. Also, SSNs are issued in interesting geographical and chronological patterns, so casual fun could be had by a group of people comparing theirs. It wasn't intrusive, it was just there was no reason to hide it. That's completely changed.

[calimac]

Another thing that used to be publicly shareable information but is now a deep dark secret is bank account numbers. They aren't even printed on account statements any more.

The idea is that anyone with your account number could take money out of your account. Was this not the case in the past, or did it just not occur to anyone?

The hilarious part is that the account number is printed on your checks (as we spell that over here). I guess you're not supposed to write checks to random strangers any more; but then, the things one used to write checks to random strangers for, like repair bills or store purchases, are always done with credit cards now.

On the other hand, you're not supposed to let out your credit card number either. But if someone misuses your credit card, at least there's a line of security between them and actually accessing your money in the form of the credit card fraud report.

[randomdreams]

I worked for a company where the management openly told us "we aren't threatening you, we're just saying that if you report us to OSHA they will shut us down and you will all lose your jobs." Same company said "we can't legally require overtime, but your scheduled work hours are ten hours a day five days a week and we will fire you for not showing up for your scheduled work hours."

[andrewducker]

I'd like to hope that that company has now been burned to the ground, and the earth salted to prevent regrowth.

Sadly, I suspect there's a lot of it about.

[randomdreams]

Well, the good news is they're no longer in manufacturing business in the US. The bad news is they are *thriving* in Mexico, China, and India.