People make mistakes and have indiscretions. There was a time when those errors and lapses in judgment were contained within the community or within the family, sometimes discretely and sometimes not, and that upon leaving that community, those indiscretions would in theory be left behind. It's important that people do have the opportunity to begin again, to not have to be constantly reminded about things that are no longer relevant in their life in which judgmental people often use this as a pressure point to keep others in their place, all under the guise of "full disclosure".
In today's world, getting that new identity, receiving that new start, is difficult to accomplish for many reasons. First off, there is the proverbial "shooing yourself in the own foot" problem that is presented by the ubiquitous use of social media outlets in which photos, comments, or videos that were posted by yourself or others in which you are in a compromising positions can be an annoying source of constant embarrassment in which apparently the party never ends, even though it ended for you a while ago. That is why applications like snapchat are so relevant to people, because it allows you to maintain control over photos that you send through your phone in which they self-destruct on the recipient's phone after a few seconds. Instead, too often when we post or we send something through social media, even though later on we may delete our original, copies of our post are completely out of our control.
In the corporate world, things get much more serious beginning at the time that we are born, as our Social Security number that is assigned and mandated for us is for all practical purposes also our national identification number. Despite some rather listless consumer protections, this means that our education, our health, our finances, and other pertinent information therefore stick to us like glue, in which we can never opt out. For instance, if you make some bad financial decisions, or have some financial hardship thrust upon you by being laid off, this data will be placed onto your credit report, in which you will suffer the consequences of this unfortunate event in regards to higher loan rates, restricted credit amounts, and even lessened employment opportunities, for a minimum of seven long years!
People mature at different rates, some much later than others, and people do not always remain the same. For some people the past is a very definite prologue of the future, but for others, the past is truly the past, and they are a changed person. Government documentation allows outsiders to often get a distorted view of ourselves, in which we are processed and valued, sorted and stacked, making the individual by definition to take a backseat to the data. It shouldn't be that way, at a minimum; people should be allowed a reset button, a real second chance, a fresh start, or a new or revised identity.
Our national identification number is pinned upon us, whether we are ready for it or not, in which a significant amount of people don't understand or comprehend the ramifications of decisions that they make in a moment's time which will define them for all practical purposes. Through our national identification number, incriminating information is used against us, perhaps even unbeknownst to us, and lessens our opportunities and our quality of life.