Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!spool.mu.edu!think.com!mintaka!spdcc!iecc!johnl
From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Social Security numbers
Message-ID: <1991Jan31.044728.28435@iecc.cambridge.ma.us>
Date: 31 Jan 91 04:47:28 GMT
References: <29736@mimsy.umd.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: I.E.C.C.
Lines: 33

In article <29736@mimsy.umd.edu> dalamb@umiacs.umd.edu (David Lamb) writes:
>Is it legal for all these people to [require your SSN all over the place]?
>Did somebody change the rules, or was my "vague memory" always wrong?
> is anyone else upset about this?

Lots of us are upset about it, but the legal situation is not great.  There
are in general no laws regarding the use of the SSN by non-government
organizations.  You are free not to give it, and they are free not to do
business with you.  Some states have laws, e.g. there appears to be a state
law here in Massachusetts that prohibits banks from using the SSN as the
primary key on bank accounts or ATM cards.

For government use, whenever they ask for your SSN they are required to tell
you why they ask and what will happen if you don't give it.  In general, it's
supposed to be required only for tax purposes, but there are exceptions to
"in general" through which you could drive a supertanker.  Many states
absolutely require your SSN for a drivers license, and a lot of them insist
on putting it on your license.  Here in Mass. they ask but on request (and
without giving you a hard time) the license has a "state" number which is the
letter S followed by 9 digits and is very handy for confusing droids who want
to type the number into computers that know that the number contains only
digits.

Personally, I have developed amnesia.  I don't know my SSN.  On the rare
occasions when it's needed for a W-4 or W-9, I can go home and look it up.
People think I'm strange, but I get surprisingly little hassle.  In many
cases the mandatory number is only mandatory in the mind of the clerk asking
for it.

-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650
johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {ima|spdcc|world}!iecc!johnl
" #(ps,#(rs))' " - L. P. Deutsch and C. N. Mooers