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SSNs are not reused. About 450 million have already been issued. If people in a breach are issued new SSNs, we'll run out of numbers rather quickly.
by sobriquet9 6y ago
SSNs are not reused. About 450 million have already been issued. If people in a breach are issued new SSNs, we'll run out of numbers rather quickly.
- codezero 6y agoI can just imagine the panic of having to increase the field size by a single digit, it'd be a billion dollar, decade long problem that never gets fixed.
- angry_octet 6y agoMaybe the current SSN will just be a prefix, with additional suffix digits, like zip codes.
- angry_octet 6y agoI'm sure they'll be reused at some point. Maybe there will be a market for used celebrity SSNs.
- sobriquet9 6y agoSSNs are used as unique identifiers. If you start re-using them, they're no longer unique.
- angry_octet 6y agoNothing about SSNs is ideal. The uniqueness and permanence assumption is part of why identity theft is so calamitous. So sharing an SSN with someone who's been dead 20 years seems preferable to sharing one with someone who is reusing yours.