^ yep. SSNs are also terrible to collect, as they are hard to verify if the user even gave you a valid number, as there's no self checking system like credit ca

^ yep. SSNs are also terrible to collect, as they are hard to verify if the user even gave you a valid number, as there's no self checking system like credit cards, you have to check against some 3rd party database that may know who that person is, but can't be sure, or just may not know who they are. Also, if you fuck up, you screw over a lot of people. Fun fact, until 2011 SSNs were loosely based on where you were born. If you were a bad actor and wanted to use a fake SSN, just change a couple of numbers at the end and you could get a new number of someone that was born around when you were, in the same hospital as you.