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March 16, 2005

Somewhat Secure Number

With a Congressional committee interviewing ChoicePoint CEO Derek Smith over the theft of 145,000 people's social security numbers, many members of Congress are wondering if it isn't time to rewrite the laws of selling personal data and make selling a person's SS# illegal.

What? It isn't illegal already? When I head about this I was flabbergasted. In high school and college they drill it into your head to never let anyone get your Social Security Number. All sorts of experts say never to respond to SPAM asking for your SS# or PINs or anything. Yet companies like ChoicePoint are allowed to know it.

One interview had the company saying they needed social security numbers to keep track of the uniqueness of each individual. Are you telling me name and date of birth isn't enough for that? How many Kevin Haroutioun Ohannessians born on February 27, 1979 are there running around?

With identity theft becoming a bigger threat every day, the government needs to curb such businesses access to personal data. Congress should make buying and selling Social Security Numbers illegal. I don't think the companies will suffer much loss. They still have our Driver License numbers and everything else under the sun.

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at March 16, 2005 10:48 AM | Category: privacy + security | 6 Comments

6 COMMENTS

Posted by: trung nguyen at March 16, 2005 5:00 PM

Please rememeber that in the US we have little to no privacy laws to protect us. That's why why Canada and a number of European countries have made it illegal to store thier citizen private data in the US.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 16, 2005 5:07 PM

The reason companies like Choicepoint and Seisint need unique personal identifiers like SS#'s and DL#'s is because without them, it is far more difficult if not impossible to consolidate data with reasonable accuracy - especially since not everyone has the good fortune of having a unique name like Kevin Ohannessian - there are a number of Jane and John Does out there that are easily confused. If they are no longer allowed to buy or sell this information, expect to see a new push for obtaining biometric identifiers as Choicepoint CEO Derek Smith advocates for in his book, Risk Revolution. Whatever way you look at it is just downright creepy. The larger question is, even with reforms, will consumers ever be able to trust companies like this? If the way Choicepoint treats some of its best customers is any indication, the answer is clearly NO. See: http://www.insurancejournal.com/magazines/southcentral/2002/02/11/features/19186.htm

Posted by: Peter Reed at April 22, 2005 6:58 PM

What about DISH NETWORK? They now require a SSN for ANY new account. Not just for accounts with unpaid or leased equipment, but ANY new account, regardless if all service is paid for in advance or not.

Of course they are willing to look the other way and will waive that requirement for a $200 NON-REFUNDABLE fee!

So, they need the number, but don't really need it if enough money is paid to compensate them for the lost revenue in selling the customer's private information?

Dish Network is alone in the satellite business with this requirment.

Excellent article here (SF Chronicle) about this here (it is on two lines, so paste into combined line in your browser) :

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/23/BUGN0ATH9M1.DTL

Posted by: Kelly at October 15, 2006 6:18 PM

Dish Network sells SSN details. When we signed up for one of their hot deals, they called us home 1 week and asked us all our personal details including SSN. We thought it was genuine and they were trying to double check. Gave all the details. Later they came to apt and told us the directions were not favourable and dropped the installation. 4 years later, we shifted apartment and called dish network again requesting an installation. Now they say our SSN is being used by 2 other persons!!!!! Then after that I tried talking to their customer support so many times. They keep saying we cannot reveal any information about your SSN, file a police complaint. Right now we do not have the time since it is a lengthy process. If one of you has some suggestions please post your reply in this site.

Posted by: Gabby at March 14, 2007 3:17 PM

You should NEVER EVER give up your SSN for any institution outside government (DMV) and financial institutions (bank, lender or investment company). We have declined to give away our SSNs so many times to institutions that only need SSNs for ID purposes. These institutions include hospitals, doctor offices, pediatricians, vets, dentists, even daycares and preschools. In almost all cases, they will accept other form of ID, such as DL or passport, or in one OB office where I went for prenatal visits, they just wrote down 999999999 for my ID. The key is, be persistent in defending your SSN.

Posted by: Gabby at March 14, 2007 3:23 PM

In case of Dish network, we backed away from subscribing to their service. We would rather use other provider than giving away our SSN to some strangers (Dish network). I wonder whether they can gain a lot of new customers with that SSN requirement. I know we cancelled our application process when we saw those sacred words: SSN required :)