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Does Your Employer Still Use SSNs?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-likely-to-change-any-time-soon dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "My company, a fairly large telco, still uses social security numbers for non-financial purposes; mostly for our IT ticketing system. I find it amazing that in these times, with how easy it is to use an SSN to obtain credit, that any company still does this. I've heard talk for almost eight years that the practice is going to be stopped but little progress has been made. How many companies out there still use SSNs so openly? Since it seems that nobody is in a hurry to solve this issue, what can be done to speed the process up?"

6 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Wow... that's not right... by soren42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My employer, a large bank, doesn't even use SSN's (or, more specifically TIN's - Taxpayer Identification Number) for non-financial information. Our employee ID numbers are unique, distinct, and not based on any formula. Now, that said, any employee that has a corporate credit card or is an officer of the company ("Officer", "Assistant Vice President", "Vice President", "Director", "Managing Director", "Senior Vice President", "Executive Vice President", "Senior Executive Vice President", etc., etc., etc.) does have their credit checked monthly by the company. But, I would assume that any company - not just a bank - would take that precaution with employees with purchasing or signatory authority. That system is based on SSN/TIN at our company - but it makes sense there.

    I believe that there is a Federal Regulation that intends to restrict the use of SSN/TIN numbers for identification by (guessing here) 2010. I'm certain there is such a law for banks, but I believe that it extends to any US public company. Anyone have details on this?

    One last thing - I know many people who use fake SSN's for non-financial uses. For some time, Richard Nixon's SSN was very popular. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not endorsing that practice - just sharing that it seems pretty common to me.

    --

    "Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things."
    1. Re:Wow... that's not right... by reanjr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I used to work for a logistics company that GM uses. One of GM's systems required some kind of user authentication (I don't remember the details) that they asked for my SSN to use. I did an MD5 on my actual SSN in hex and ripped out all the letters, used the first 9 as my SSN. It's a nice, repeatable way to generate a fake SSN that is likely to be unique in any system.

      I strongly suggest using fake SSNs for anything possible, but of course, many times you are signing the "I verify that all this information is true to my knowledge" clause. Of course if you use it all the time, maybe you can get away with chalking it up to confusion over your actual SSN.

  2. Point out to your local normalization DBA by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That SSNs are non-unique. They used to be, but thanks to illegal immigrants, ID theft, and a lot of other problems, SSNs simply aren't unique anymore, and thus are not a good identifier.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  3. You might be surprised... by BenEnglishAtHome · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...that my employer, a place flat-out driven by SSNs in many aspects of our work, wouldn't think of using them for anything internal that isn't mandated by law. We issue to everyone a 5-character ID that's used for signons and all sorts of IDs. We used to use a contraction of the user name, but even that has been 95% phased out for years.

    It's not that difficult to quit using SSNs and it's just good policy. I'm surprised that they are still so commonly used in situations where they might be disclosed to anyone but the person to whom it belongs.

  4. Good thing federal law prevents that. by BKX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or at least allows you to. All universities and colleges MUST allow you to change your student ID to something other than your SSN if you ask (and are encouraged to not use SSNs anyway, though not required). It's federal law (a law passed about five years ago, I beleive). Ask and you shall receive. If you don't, sue and you shall receive even more.

  5. Re:SSN by spagetti_code · · Score: 3, Interesting
    As a foreigner who was working in the US for a number of months (all above board - my US based employer stationed me there) - I was forced to get by without a SSN.

    I had all sorts of issues including (a small sample):

    • having my VISA card rejected because it wasn't an "American" VISA
    • having my passport labelled a forgery at a bank because the date was 14/6/68. To quote the teller "there's no 14th month". Let me tell you - that creates an interesting scene in a busy bank.
    • being given checks by another bank, which were rejected by almost everyone because their starting number was too low. Then the bank cancelled them because of my lack of SSN.
    • the supermarket wouldn't let me use checks because I didn't have an SSN.
    • being offered a discount at the checkout on an expensive item if I signed up for a loyalty card. I said I didn't have an SSN. No problem they said. 30 minutes of head scratching and phone calls later, the checkout and manager and manager's manager gave up. Sorry they said. You need an SSN.

    Eventually I got a fake SSN from a website that has lists of unused SSNs and everything went a lot smoother.