This is an article describing a flaw in Bank of America’s privacy system.
Bank of America lets customers have full access to their account and account details with a phone and social security number.
Phone numbers are easy to get nowadays and don’t warrant a discussion; social security numbers are also increasingly common (any business that pays an individual more than $600 a year needs the individual to sign an IRS W-9 form which includes a social security number).
While the digital age has enabled an unprecedented way of storing and retrieving large amounts of data, it has also led to some unfortunate consequences like the death of privacy.
I don’t believe that the lack of privacy is an inherent problem with the present technologies but rather the attitude and policies that vendors and consumers continue to hold about personal data.
It’ll be interesting to see in the next 10 years where the trend in individual privacy and the security around that will go.