Re: Global unique identifier

[Paul Koning <pkoning@xxxxxxxxx>]

>>>>> "Christopher" == Christopher Williams <ccwilliams@ntlworld.com> writes:

 Christopher> There aren't many details about a person that can be
 Christopher> assumed to be constant (not even his / her name).
 Christopher> Certainly not his subject name as that presumably
 Christopher> changes when the person changes job.  The US has a
 Christopher> social security number; other countries have similar
 Christopher> schemes...

Just to repeat what has been said before:

a. The US SSN is *not* a globally unique identifier.  It is an "almost 
always unique identifier".

b. The US SSN is not necessarily constant for a given person.  There
are conditions under which a person can obtain a new SSN.  Given the
increased use of the SSN for dubious purposes (e.g., for insurance ID
numbers, student ID numbers, and other things of questionable
legality) the incentive for SSN abuse is increasing dramatically.
This in turn will cause the rate of SSN change to increase (since SSN
abuse is one of the recognized grounds for getting a new one).  (FYA,
having an SSN that contains the string "666" is another.)

	paul