I recently renewed my gym membership, and next to the line requesting my birth date was one requesting my Social Security number. I found the question a little odd, and I hesitated, wondering, How could they possibly need that? Then I remembered all the other times I’d filled out forms that requested my SSN—forms for the library, the electric company, and even my video store membership—and that most of those times, I’d willingly handed over the information without batting an eye.
Some discussions of informational privacy may seem silly and overblown (like discussions of exactly who gets to see those Facebook pictures you posted purposely), but protecting the integrity of your Social Security number is actually very important. Identity theft is still a billion-dollar business, and all it takes for you to spend the next several years untangling the tatters of your financial life is for those precious nine digits to fall into the wrong hands. Some businesses and entities have a legitimate, government-mandated interest in knowing and recording your Social Security number. Some don’t. Before you divulge it on even one more form, learn the difference.
The Accidental Authenticator
The funny thing is that the SSN was never intended to be used the way we use it today. When the first numbers were given out in 1936, they were supposed to merely denote a retirement account number, not meant to be de facto personal identifiers or authenticators that would follow us through our lives and record each little bit of our personal, financial, residential, and transactional history.
Government agencies and businesses began using the SSN more broadly when records became computerized—it was a lot easier to differentiate between people across multiple platforms by using this unique numeric code, instead of by relying on names. Since each person had already been assigned one unique number at birth, the Social Security number seemed like an ideal number to use.
These days, businesses request SSNs for a variety of reasons. Some want to run credit checks on their customers, some want to keep their records intact through customers’ address or name changes, and some simply want the number for use as that unique identifier. But while most businesses request the number only for legitimate purposes, some do make money by selling their customers’ information to marketers, and a list including Social Security numbers is much more valuable than a list of names alone.
Who Gets It
There are only a few entities to which you are legally obligated to provide your Social Security number.
- Certain government agencies (Department of Motor Vehicles, welfare, unemployment, Medicare, Medicaid, Internal Revenue Service)
- Employers
- Banks
- Financial services firms (brokerages, investment firms)
