> Do you often send the auto-incremented int (that would be the default substitute to this) when communicating with others?
Frequently yes. It is extremely common to communicate about specific records using the ID for that record. The fact that this sort of behavior is extremely common is pretty clearly indicated by the question itself.
> There are so many ways to query a particular user's data, and they would all depend on what you're trying to do, needing the specific key would mean you should have access to it anyway
A responsible organization at scale with limit and log access to customer data. I should be able to determine if two people are talking about the same customer record without needing access to that record's PII.
It is much better to have an artificial key that is linked to this data. There is no upside to the natural key and many, many downsides.
Frequently yes. It is extremely common to communicate about specific records using the ID for that record. The fact that this sort of behavior is extremely common is pretty clearly indicated by the question itself.
> There are so many ways to query a particular user's data, and they would all depend on what you're trying to do, needing the specific key would mean you should have access to it anyway
A responsible organization at scale with limit and log access to customer data. I should be able to determine if two people are talking about the same customer record without needing access to that record's PII.
It is much better to have an artificial key that is linked to this data. There is no upside to the natural key and many, many downsides.