if you really think that telling it to a doctor protects you, you are fooling yourself. you would actually better off giving it to a lawyer. the lawyer client privledge is much more secure (though it's coming under attack) than the doctor patient privledge. there are all kinds of situations where doctors, by law, have to turn over info. for example if you tell your doctor that you have fainted before, they can report that to the dmv. if you tell your shrink you have committed a crime, they have to report that. plus it's just silly because it can be found out anyway. just give me your name (first and last will do), and your city, and I can get your SSN, last several residences, any properties owned, criminal records, names of family, bankuptcies, and names of neighbors all through fairly publically accessible databases.
also for those who didn't know. by law you no longer have to use your SSN for ID purposes. this means that you can tell your insurance company that you will not allow them to use your SSN as your member id, etc. Not that it really matters much.
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if you really think that telling it to a doctor protects you, you are fooling yourself. you would actually better off giving it to a lawyer. the lawyer client privledge is much more secure (though it's coming under attack) than the doctor patient privledge. there are all kinds of situations where doctors, by law, have to turn over info. for example if you tell your doctor that you have fainted before, they can report that to the dmv. if you tell your shrink you have committed a crime, they have to report that. plus it's just silly because it can be found out anyway. just give me your name (first and last will do), and your city, and I can get your SSN, last several residences, any properties owned, criminal records, names of family, bankuptcies, and names of neighbors all through fairly publically accessible databases.
also for those who didn't know. by law you no longer have to use your SSN for ID purposes. this means that you can tell your insurance company that you will not allow them to use your SSN as your member id, etc. Not that it really matters much.