There have been several recent reports of donor drives laptops being lost / stolen from drives and other potential compromises of donor information.

Are you using a donors social security number (USA respondents) as an identifier?

If not, what are you using for positive donor identification?

Since we are based in NY and see a lot of people that aren't necessarily US citizens with SSN, we do not require SSN, although we do prefer it. Of course, with all the news of identity theft, no one wants to give it out anyway and some people are happy to provide us with the last 4 digits of their number as a compromise. We will take any government issued photo ID such as passport, driver's license, visas, etc as long as we can read it.

Donors need a picture id. We do not do SS#'s anymore. We use birthdate.

Funny thing about birthdate that happened to me, personally, but I thought I'd share since it would come up donor related.

Heard through my car insurance that I got a speeding ticket. Turns out there is a lady with my exact same name AND exact birthdate. We call her the "speedy Christine". Thank God her Driver's license was in PA and I am in NY or I would be paying for increased premiums.

Just something extra to think about when using birthdate. I would say it is not a normal occurance though...

Christine

Digi-Trax has a new ID Card System called CHAMELEON. It can provide a combination of bar code and MAG-STRIPE technologywith a special re-writable thermal surface that will give you an oppotunity to provide donors with donation data and physical exam information plus scheduling upon each visit. The CHAMELEON system gives you both a security system and a postive marketing tool. Visit our web site: www.digi-trax.com and click on "Other Selections" and "Chameleon".