Wednesday, January 10, 2018

NRIC number should not be a secret

In the past, we use the NRIC as the means of identifying a person. The government issues a NRIC card with the photo to each person.

The NRIC is never intended to be used as the "full identification" of that person. Where necessary, the person has to produce the NRIC card for verification of the identity.

Later, somebody decided that the NRIC number should be kept secret. It cannot be used in case somebody uses it fraudulently.

I cannot understand this logic. A person's name is also used for identification. Should the name be kept secret as well?

We face a different situation from America. In America, the social security number is used to identify a person. However, there is no official card with this number and a photo that can be used to confirm the identity. In America, it is necessary to keep the social security number secret.

I suspect that we are making a big mistake to keep the NRIC secret.

1 comment:

fairplay said...

The NRIC number also indicate the birth year. Some people especially females do not like to reveal their age therefore they do not like to reveal their NRIC number in full. Some people with the intent of hiding the birth year proposes that only the last four digits be revealed thus keeping the whole NRIC secret.

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