Social Security recipients must update their online accounts. Here's what to know.

[snot]

37. I suspect this is more madness.

More digital access/automation has generally meant more time wasted for me.

And as for the ID requirements, there simply is and can be no lasting security based on centralized control of increasing amounts of personal data, even biometric, because sooner or later, those systems can and will be hacked.

The best security is based on just one thing: your own personal, well-protected passwords.

I've gone through 3 data breaches at companies that had all my personal data except my passwords for accounts at other institutions. Beyond the inconvenience of my having to take post-breach precautionary measures each time (freezing my credit at the main bureaus and enrolling in credit protection programs), all of my personal data is now permanently on the dark web – except for my passwords for accounts at companies that have not yet suffered a breach and except for my iris scans and fingerprints; but no doubt the latter will soon have been stolen, too. Companies and institutions will eventually require our complete DNA; and that too will in time simply become permanently available on the dark web.

The bigger the institution and the more personal data its database contains, the more likely it is to be targeted by hackers (or abused by governmental authorities).

The only thing that might actually be secure is your own personal list of your own personal passwords, kept offline.

So imho, whether those implementing these changes are fully aware of it or not, all these heightened ID requirements and digitization/automation of access aren't about our convenience or security; they're about (1) cost-cutting for institutions at the expense of users and (2) surveillance of users.