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Comment by peteretep | Hacker News Reader

    > retailers who ask for the TFN

Why would a retailer ask for it? I don't think I've been asked for my NI number (the UK equivalent) by anyone except people dealing with my tax (including banks) or by the government directly when registering for services.

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They don't as a rule, but I believe there have been a few who have tried.

... to what end? Credit reports can presumably be looked up without them if they're not asked for regularly.

Its I believe highly illegal when I worked for BT in the UK misuse of NI numbers was a very serious gross misconduct offence - we go read the riot act over this it was almost as bad as corruptly looking up data on individuals info - say the queens private number ;-)

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