Your Social Security number contains no Personal Information [View all]

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Mon Aug 12, 2013, 12:01 PM - Edit history (2)

It is just a bunch of numbers without your name, address... anything to tie it to you.

The only real information in it is where it was issued (the first three digits are an area number). The rest just tell where in the Social Security filing system the number goes. (They used file cabinets back when the system started which affected the number system. That's why each area code is divided into up to 100 sub-codes in the two-digit part of the number. 323-71 would be one drawer or cabinet.)

And since your SSN contains no personal information you might as well just give it to anyone who asks.

Heck, why not?

To learn anything about you from your Social Security number someone would have to look it up or run it through a database, like a credit reporting agency or government benefits database or... well, actually any database in the world that includes social security numbers.

But nobody would ever do that.

Edit: This OP is ironic, not literal—of course you shouldn't give your SSN to everyone. It arose from a discussion of whether the NSA collecting phone records is collecting 'personal information.' Some would say that a unique identifier one can use to easily discover personal information is personal information, and SS numbers make that point well. They are very personal information, and we all know that, but one could say that a pile of collected social security numbers *contains* no personal information and be literally correct in a slippery way.