System Identification Numbers (SIN)

System Identification number (SINs) were introduced by the UCAS in 2036, requiring the registration of every UCAS citizen. Individuals without a SIN are considered "probationary citizens" meaning they can't vote and have few civil rights. SINs are legaly registered at childbirth assuming the child is born at a standard hospital. Those not born in a hospital are born SINless, unless they are registered or arrested they don't officially exist.
===Getting a SIN===
SINs are legally registered at childbirth assuming the child is born at a standard hospital. Those not born in a hospital are born SINless, unless they are registered or arrested they don't officially exist. Individuals in the UCAS without a SIN are considered 'probationary citizens', which means they are not allowed to vote and have few to no civil rights.
It is possible to attempt to register for a SIN, but one must prove they are a solid upstanding citizen and that the UCAS has something to gain by admitting them. For most SINless members of the urban sprawls this is not a viable option.Most governments around the world have SINs and the databases are shared between governments. Corporations can also issue "corporate SINs" to their employees/citizens.
The actual numbers of a SIN are a complex formula of several pieces of person data. Meaning law enforcement can determine a characters birth date, state of origin and initials from a SIN. For Awakened characters, a SIN also means that your signature and a means for you to be traced exists in the database.
If you lack a SIN, many activities that normal citizens take for granted become impossible for you. You cannot get a legal job, open a bank account, own property, go to school, rent an apartment, establish utility services, etc. SINs are even required for any form of legal public transportation - to include so much as a bus ticket. Even those with criminal SINs find some of these tasks difficult.
(The only SIN ever displayed in any SR book is: 5T2G-8U6V-PK02)
===Being SINless===
If a character has no SIN many activities that normal citizens take for granted become impossible. SINs are needed in order to get a legaly get a job job, open a bank account, own property, rent an apartment, go to school, establish utility services and travel. Those without a SIN will face red tape and hassle wherever they go. They can't have credsticks with ID in them and instead need to use certified credsticks which act like cash.
If a SINless person is arrested it's not uncommon for them to be horribly abused, locked away or "disappeared". Since they don't officially exists they have no rights to speak of. SINless who are arrested can also be issued a Criminal SIN.
===Criminal SIN===
When a SINless person is arrested and the police want to make it official they issue the person a ciminal SIN. This SIN is archived with multiple law enforcement agencies and has the persons arrest records, photograph, fingerprints, palm prints, and perhaps even voice-print, retinal scan and tissue sample. Once a criminal SIN has been issued it's extremely difficult to get rid of and will result in hassle for a character wherever its discovered they have it.
===Credsticks and ID===
credsticks are pen-sized tubes that serve as simultaneous ID and credit card. A credstick shows a persons SIN along with any licenses or permits that they have. It also supplied emergency medical information, finger/palm and retinal prints.
As well as ID credsticks primarily use is to transfer money. Credsticks contain encoded optical chips that retain the access codes necessary to transfer money from the users account, as well as the accounts most recent balance information.
To use a credstick it is inserted into a credstick reader which connects through the matrix to a financial institution and allows the user to deposit, withdraw or transfer funds. In order to manipulate funds an ID check is required.
===Certifitied Credstick===
Similar to cash, a certified credstick is not registered to a particular person and is worth only the amount of credit encoded on it. It requires no identification to use and so cannot be used as ID.
===Forging Credsticks and IDs===
Forging a credstick is a difficult task. Though the stick itself may be easy to create, fabricating the background identification files that make a credstick legitimate requires considerable effort and skill in data manipulation only a few shadowy organizations are able to create them and it's costly to aquire a quality fake.
Fake ID Quality	Cost
Low 	4 000¥
Medium 	40 000¥
High 	120 000¥
The higher the quality of fake identification the more thorough a search it would take to show up as a fake ID. If a credstick reader suspects an ID is fake, but isn't sure, it will come back with verification questions to ask the owner of the credstick to verify their ID, like passwords, place of residence, origin, place of work, parents names etc. It could also require a finger print or retinal verification.
Low Quality: Can be used for simple things like buying groceries or other random nickknacks that don't warrant anything but a deduction from your bank account. Serious checks like police or corporate security checks are required to break through it, however, it will stand up to inspection about 4 times, maybe with some of the above questions asked, before becoming useless.
Medium Quality: Can stand up to the average police check or ID scan at a high security area, though active background checks (such as those conducted when someone applies to a corporation, or during a serious police investigation), will turn up the errors and incosistencies after a while.
High Quality: A full on fake identity, backed up in databases across the world, complete with fake newspaper articles, family photos, ect. This level of ID will stand up to most levels of scrutiny save the most intense investigations by motivated and well equipped deckers delving into the fake person's past.