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Thanks for bringing that up. Denmark, an EU member state, does not have ID cards, so it's not exactly mandatory over there. Seems weird that a SSN is not consi

Thanks for bringing that up. Denmark, an EU member state, does not have ID cards, so it's not exactly mandatory over there. Seems weird that a SSN is not considered a national identity system? What if the federal government sunset SSNs after a bunch of big states implemented an equivalent of EIDAS on their own volition?

pionar 5y ago
It's basically because SSNs were not supposed to be used for that purpose, they were only supposed to be for the SSA to track people, like an account number. In fact, the paper cards used to say "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" on them. I forget when that was removed. The military started using them for ID in the 60s, then the IRS started using them in the 70s, and it's just kind of morphed into an ID number because "everyone has one".