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Collecting Social Security Numbers

By Nicole Pszczolkowski and L. Elise Dieterich

In the first six months of 2014, at least 96 significant data breaches were reported, compromising more than 2.2 million records, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Of these breaches, at least 46 involved records that may have contained Social Security Numbers (SSNs). What the affected businesses may not know is that their mere collection of SSNs may have put them in violation of state laws, in addition to the liability they may now face for having failed to protect the SSN information.

Despite their limited original purpose, SSNs have become de facto national identifiers, frequently used as an authenticator in both the public and private sectors. In fact, no other form of personal identification plays a more significant role in linking together records that contain an individual's sensitive and confidential information. Ironically, the widespread use of SSNs as both an identifier and an authenticator is precisely what makes collecting and using the numbers so risky.

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