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> were supposed to be kept secret It's especially laughable because you have to give it to -everybody-. Phone service, cable service, schools, employers, etc e

> were supposed to be kept secret It's especially laughable because you have to give it to -everybody-. Phone service, cable service, schools, employers, etc etc etc.

macintux 9y ago
In a college class ~20 years ago the professor passed around a sign-in sheet expecting everyone to fill in their names and SSNs. I was astonished, to put it mildly, both at the professor's cluelessness and the willingness of my fellow students to do it.
- mistersquid 9y ago
  The article linked at the top of this thread discusses the need for different identifiers in different information contexts (education, health, tax, etc.). Many education institutions 20 years ago used SSNs as a unique identifier for students. On the first day of class, the only way to determine if a body present in a class was actually enrolled was to confirm SSN. Confirming identity in an education context is crucial in the first few weeks of class because being officially enrolled in a course affects student loans, work study, graduation paperwork, health insurance, etc. Additionally, many educational institutions have a policy that students not present for a class's first X meetings will be dropped from the course, a mechanism which allows students physically present to enroll in enrollment-capped courses (especially important for required courses). One of the most straightforward ways educators had of verifying that a body was in fact who that body said he or she was--was to ask for SSN because many educational institutions used SSNs as unique identifiers (but not necessarily verifiers). In other words, asking for verifying information enabled the educator to complete the institution's academic mission and to facilitate the educational needs of students. It is not the fault of educators that financial institutions also use SSNs as both means of identification and verification. As "clueless" as an educator might have been, he or she might be partially absolved for requesting PII in the context of educational bureaucracy. Granted, it would be better if each information context had unique identifiers that are not SSNs since SSNs are used by financial institutions. EDIT: readability, grammar, clarity.
  - esrauch 9y ago
    > Many education institutions 20 years ago used SSNs as a unique identifier for students RIT university was still doing this only ten years ago, at the time I had to send a number of angry emails about publicly available lists of students with their SSNs indexed by Google.
- ams6110 9y ago
  My university in the 1980s used SSN as student ID number. It wasn't such a big deal then. People had their SSN pre-printed on personal checks. Identity theft and online fraud didn't really exist at the time.
  - briffle 9y ago
    The Oregon University System moved away from SSNs as identifier in the late 90's. I could punch in my SSN to charge my meal in a dining hall to my account in 98.

> were supposed to be kept secret It's especially laughable because you have to give it to -everybody-. Phone service, cable service, schools, employers, etc etc etc.

macintux 9y ago

In a college class ~20 years ago the professor passed around a sign-in sheet expecting everyone to fill in their names and SSNs. I was astonished, to put it mildly, both at the professor's cluelessness and the willingness of my fellow students to do it.

mistersquid 9y ago
The article linked at the top of this thread discusses the need for different identifiers in different information contexts (education, health, tax, etc.). Many education institutions 20 years ago used SSNs as a unique identifier for students. On the first day of class, the only way to determine if a body present in a class was actually enrolled was to confirm SSN. Confirming identity in an education context is crucial in the first few weeks of class because being officially enrolled in a course affects student loans, work study, graduation paperwork, health insurance, etc. Additionally, many educational institutions have a policy that students not present for a class's first X meetings will be dropped from the course, a mechanism which allows students physically present to enroll in enrollment-capped courses (especially important for required courses). One of the most straightforward ways educators had of verifying that a body was in fact who that body said he or she was--was to ask for SSN because many educational institutions used SSNs as unique identifiers (but not necessarily verifiers). In other words, asking for verifying information enabled the educator to complete the institution's academic mission and to facilitate the educational needs of students. It is not the fault of educators that financial institutions also use SSNs as both means of identification and verification. As "clueless" as an educator might have been, he or she might be partially absolved for requesting PII in the context of educational bureaucracy. Granted, it would be better if each information context had unique identifiers that are not SSNs since SSNs are used by financial institutions. EDIT: readability, grammar, clarity.
- esrauch 9y ago
  > Many education institutions 20 years ago used SSNs as a unique identifier for students RIT university was still doing this only ten years ago, at the time I had to send a number of angry emails about publicly available lists of students with their SSNs indexed by Google.
ams6110 9y ago
My university in the 1980s used SSN as student ID number. It wasn't such a big deal then. People had their SSN pre-printed on personal checks. Identity theft and online fraud didn't really exist at the time.
- briffle 9y ago
  The Oregon University System moved away from SSNs as identifier in the late 90's. I could punch in my SSN to charge my meal in a dining hall to my account in 98.