>social security numbers aren't a good identifier because they can be spoofed<p>agreed<p>>biometrics are a good identifier because gov't employees id themselves like this<p>sooooo um what happens when that database is hacked, like OPM was?<p>here's an idea. security questions with answers that aren't very guessable.<p>why?<p>I call my bank and they say, "tell me the x words that you selected as your security combo, in order"<p>And I say "zebra john henry alligator cheetah mosquito cardshark"<p>And they say "great, now sign in to the website to see a verification code we've sent to you"<p>"ok it's 15467"<p>"ok how can i help you today?"<p>It's not foolproof, but it proves ownership of the account and access to a very long piece of data that the bank and I agree to use as a human readable private key, that we can change at any time together if compromised.<p>They can also text or email me when a sign in to my account occurs.<p>This way, unless my account has been hacked and I am completely unaware of it, any bad shit that might happen will be caught quickly.<p>I can't imagine this is worse than the current scenario.