It should be fine to broadcast SSN, the blame really falls to credit reporting companies and lenders treating it as a private and secure identifier. SSN's were

It should be fine to broadcast SSN, the blame really falls to credit reporting companies and lenders treating it as a private and secure identifier. SSN's weren't designed to be secure, and after decades of leaks they certainly aren't now. Lenders have attempted to brand losses based on this as "identity theft" (putting onus on the person) rather than just "we failed to properly authenticate before handing this person our money". Time to stop subsidizing usurers by letting them get away with this. SSNs are effectively public, and are not secure identifiers.