> You don’t have to solve it perfectly to be an improvement.
They don't want to solve your problem. You aren't their customer. They want to comply with the letter of the request in as much as it covers their own butt in terms of regulatory requirements and/or political optics.
The “solution” mentioned is political. A requirement that data on an individual is properly deleted when presented with the data would be “good”. A requirement that captures every nuance of mistakes would be “perfect”.
Hashing a birthday and SSN is deterministic. We could deterministically keep that data deleted. This would be better than we have today, and could be done reliably and affordably.
The companies can easily be required (by law) to implement the “good” solution. Everyone complaining it’s not “perfect” is stopping “good”.
They don't want to solve your problem. You aren't their customer. They want to comply with the letter of the request in as much as it covers their own butt in terms of regulatory requirements and/or political optics.