Number unlocks your private life

Monday, 6 September 1999
http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/0906N6.html

By Pila Martínez
The Arizona Daily Star

Identity theft isn't the only way people are hurt by the misuse of Social Security numbers.
It's just the only one in which the victims usually realize they've been victimized.

The loss of privacy - sometimes legal, sometimes not - is a more insidious and probably a more common problem associated with Social Security numbers, privacy-rights advocates say.

Companies that legitimately obtain a Social Security number from their clients could surreptitiously use them to get credit reports, medical information, unemployment compensation records, tax returns and other personal data, said Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of the Privacy Journal, a Rhode Island-based monthly newsletter reporting on technology and its impact on personal privacy.
Aside from being an invasion of privacy, such uses could harm the numbers' holders without them ever knowing about it.

If a job applicant gives over the number and the potential employer discovers some unfavorable information by using it - perhaps a misdemeanor arrest - the applicant could be turned away without ever knowing what cost him or her the job.

If a prospective renter gives the number to a landlord, it could turn up a questionable credit history and the landlord could hide the sleuthing by saying the apartment was rented to someone who inquired earlier.

Such uses happen ``lots and lots,'' according to Lauren Weinstein, moderator for the Privacy Forum, a World Wide Web site that addresses privacy and technology issues.
``But there's no way to quantify it. Because, how do you ever know?''

What makes Social Security numbers especially dangerous, Weinstein said, is that they link so many different types of information and are so easily accessible in some cases.

A quick list of who might have your Social Security number: the schools you've attended, your insurance carriers, your employer, your bank, your credit card companies, your lawyer, your grocery store.

If you use your Social Security number as your driver's license number, you probably couldn't count the number of times someone has scribbled those numbers across the top of your checks, which also hold your name, address and bank account number.

If the number is used on a driver's license, every time the holder hands over his or her license, he or she could be giving out access to their private lives, including financial, personal and medical information.

Smith said another concern is a push on the federal level for states to use Social Security numbers - the link to tons of information - as driver's license numbers.

``We're getting a de facto national ID card,'' he said. ``No politician would actually propose a national ID card, but they're certainly willing to pass the . . . discrete steps toward that.''