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Does giving out Dell service tag of my device pose a security risk?

If it does, please elaborate as to how.

LinuxSecurityFreak
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I think there are some privacy implications of publicly disclosing your Service Tag.

  1. The Service Tag uniquely identifies the device (not only the configuration).

  2. On the https://www.dell.com/support site, anyone can find out the hardware configuration, the software initially included with the device, warranty information, date of purchase and the country of purchase of the device.

  3. On https://www.dell.com/support/incidents-online/us/en/4/email/stolen, someone could falsely report the device as stolen, possibly causing some minor trouble when the real owner calls Dell for support.

  4. Dell recommends not to share/post service tag number on public forums (https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/Service-Tag/m-p/3875127/highlight/true#M651153). In fact, if you post it on Dell forums, it will be removed by the moderators (search for "Service tag removed per privacy policy").

Razvan Socol
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No, giving out your Dell service tag isn't a risk as such - all it can really be used for is logging support calls with Dell when you need help due to a fault with your machine. And if it resulted in them needing to send an engineer they'd ask for the address to go to fix the device. I guess if someone really wanted to they could log a load of support calls for your machine but it wouldn't impact you in any way, Dell might just get a little annoyed.

Regardless of that, the service tag is pretty public information for example if you're using a laptop all someone has to really do is get a glance at the bottom.

To add to this I believe if you create an account with Dell you can bind devices (Via their service tag) to your account that way if someone did give them your service tag they would ask that they prove their identity (In theory) - this doesn't stop someone from making an account and doing it, it's just unlikely as it won't benefit them to do this.

I wouldn't be worried about someone having the service tag - it is not a threat.