Your Driver’s License Number, or your Social Security Number guarantee identifying you … So don’t give them out and especially don’t allow photocopies to be taken! You can refuse to do business with anyone or any business who insists on having such sensitive information about you because there is no legal requirement. Vague references to the “Patriot Act” and “9/11) are just that … Vague and NOT a legal requirement.
How to keep your real home address secret has already been discussed.
Date Of Birth (DOB):
Even with a common name, or your protected Business Name is a common one, you can be identified in a commercial database by associating your name, or birth date, with an address.
About your birth date, you rarely have to give it out. If asked for it, just say you don’t give it out because of Identity Theft and Privacy concerns. If further pressed, you can say you are “middle-aged”, “elderly”, etc.
If filling in a form yourself, you can write “legal age”. Another response is a fictitious date. If you feel obligated to give a date of birth, choose one that is easy for you to remember. Why not make yourself a couple of years younger if there is no way for your DOB to be verified?
Social Security Number (SSN):
The Privacy Act of 1974 requires that any federal, state, or local government agency requesting your SSN must tell you four things:
If asked for your SSN by a federal, state, or local government agency (including a state university that accepts federal funds), look for the Privacy Act Statement. If it isn’t there, ask to see it before you give your number. Since the subject of this book is privacy, and not tax evasion, I see no problem in providing your SSN to the Internal Revenue Service.
Last Four Digits:
It may sound innocent enough when you are asked for “the last four digits” of your SSN. Cable TV people often ask that question when you order their service (assuming you wisely decline to read off the number of your driver’s license). This 4-digit number can identify you, because nobody else with your same name will also have the same last four digits of the SSN. The easy solution is to have some other four-digit number ready to use, think about this ahead of time. Perhaps it can be a date in history, or the house number where you lived long ago. Of course, the better solution is to operate under a protected Business Name that looks like a real person’s name. It would still be wise to use a made-up 4-digit number to use with your protected Business Name.
Driver’s License (DL):
I believe the only time you ever have to produce a driver’s license is when at a car rental agency or when pulled over by law enforcement while driving. For all other occasions, you can use your passport, student ID, or Bank of America Debit Card with photo as legal Photo ID.
Please do all that is legally possible to avoid having your true living address on your driver’s license, just in case someone has a spy inside the DMV. Unless you are wanted by the Feds, I don’t believe there’s a problem when dealing with government agencies.
The private businesses and organizations can be a real pain to deal with. A low-level clerk behind the counter expects you to fill out every part of a form because everyone else does, and it’s “company policy”. So let’s consider some of these private businesses or organizations:
Your Employer’s Demand For Your DL, DOB, and SSN:
Your ideal employer is YOU.
I have been self-employed since the age of 23, and I recommend this course of action to everyone (assuming you can live with your three nasty bosses known as Me, Myself, and I).
If self-employment isn’t possible for you, here’s the bad news. When you work for wages, the IRS requires the employer to get your SSN. Often they will ask for it before you’re even hired (so they can check your credit and any criminal record). Tell them you’ll give your SSN if hired for the job. If this is not acceptable, ask yourself … How badly do I want this job? If you take the job, know that your name, address, and SSN must (by law), go into the database for the National Directory of New Hires within twenty calendar days. This applies to every person hired in the United States. You can possibly avoid giving out your protected home address by giving your business address, a relative’s address, a friend’s address, or a ghost address. If you take a job as an employee, your name and any other information you provide will be associated with your employer’s information in the above mentioned Federal database.
Sometimes, you may be able to work as an independent contractor and thus avoid giving out your Social Security number. Instead, you will give your Business Name and EIN, which is the SSN equivalent for a business
Hospitals And Doctors:
If you qualify for Medicare and wish to use it, you’ll need to provide your true SSN. Other than that, I’m not aware of any law that requires your SSN to be an ID number. Insurance companies can sometimes be persuaded to use another number instead of the SSN.
Passport:
If you don’t already have one, get a US book passport or ID card you can use for identification purposes rather than your DL or SSN, even if you do not intend to travel internationally. You never know when you might suddenly want to cross international borders for a holiday and you will be prepared in advance to do so. Maybe your rich uncle in Germany will pass away leaving you a small fortune?
US passports issued after October 2006 and the new ID card contain an RFID chip, so the precautions mentioned in earlier chapters about RFID apply.
You can find out more information about getting or renewing a passport here:
You can also get a US Passport Card, which serves the same ID purposes as a regular passport book. It can be used to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-entry and is more convenient and less expensive than a passport book.
The passport card cannot be used for international travel by air but it is much more convenient to carry, as it is credit card sized. It’s less costly. There is a RFID chip in a passport card so the precautions mentioned in earlier chapters about RFID apply.
For additional information, click below:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/ppt_card/ppt_card_3926.html
Cash On Hand:
One essential in preserving privacy is to pay cash at gas stations, grocery stores, etc. You can safely use a protected Business Name debit card for these purposes but cash is king. To be safe, given the state of the economy, you should have a cash reserve to be prepared for the day banks may close, or if a government agency freezes your bank accounts without warning. To do this, you must keep a fair amount of cash that is easily accessible and yet invisible to burglars.
Where should you hide cash?
A burglarproof home isn’t realistic, nor does a security system exist that cannot be bypassed. The typical burglar will be inside your home for less than ten minutes. Your goal should be to keep your cash hidden for longer than that time. A burglar will head straight for your master bedroom. He’ll check your underwear drawer, then your other drawers, and he’ll look under your mattress. If he can find some cash in any of these places, he may just grab it and run. Maybe you leave a small amount there to convince him he found your cash and bait him away from your real hordes of cash. The burglar will next check your refrigerator and your freezer so don’t keep any cash in either place. Instead, if you have a file cabinet, use one or more of the file folders for holding the cash. Title them with obscure names such as “Old Receipts” or “Travel Brochures”.
If you have a library, cut the center out of some boring book you no longer want and put your money inside and mix the book with others in your bookcase. My personal favorite method is to use “can safes” available on the Internet. You store your money in a fake canned good on your kitchen shelves or in your pantry. These methods also work for small items.
For outdoor mildew and rustproof storage, nothing is more safe, negotiable, anonymous, and compact than silver and gold. I prefer silver rounds, but since many might prefer gold, $ 100,000 in gold coins will fit into a coffee can with room to spare.
In case you die in an accident, it may be a nuisance, but consider keeping valuables off the property in private storage. In case of death, a trusted friend or family member, whom you’ve coached beforehand, will clean out the unit and dispose of the contents.
For MEDIUM and LARGE storage, A fireproof and lockable file cabinet or heavy-duty fireproof safe is best stored in a secret room. It’s best if your secret room is large enough and fortified to accommodate one or two people during a crisis. A room such as this provides added security and a place to retreat to if you are at home during a home invasion, burglary, zombie attack, manmade disaster, or nature made disaster. This is also a good place to keep your self-defense arsenal and emergency rations.