Some Americans, mostly older women, don't know their SSN because they never used it. Their husbands handled taxes, opened bank accounts, and collected Social Security. If you've ever dealt with medical data, SSN is not a reliably unique identifier. Couples will share a number because each gives the "relevant" number instead of their own.
I (and most others that I know) don't carry a social security card. There's virtually no need for it in daily life. If you even know where yours is, it's probably sitting next to your birth certificate in a drawer.
I think they are still better than my birth date, my mother middle name and whatever this SSN is. Which is basically something that I am barely the only person to know.
Before the digital age, a stash of nine-digit numbers could be kept reasonably secure in a locked filing cabinet behind closed doors. So long as consumers volunteered the numbers judiciously, most people could make it through life without ever suffering a theft of identity.
Old guy here. The reason I know my SSN by heart is that it was my student ID number in college and had to be given at the beginning of each semester to get my course list, later for grades, etc.
I had a credit union account from the 80's and as of the 90's my SSN was printed on each monthly statement.
Both were before the "digital age" and neither could be considered "in a locked filing cabinet" nor under my control.
In Ireland, until the 90s, if a woman got married, she gave up her PPS number (essentially a social security number) and took her husband's, with a 'W' appended (this fact tells you a lot about pre-90s Ireland...) If she subsequently divorced or the husband died, she got a _new_ PPS number.
While this was abolished in the 90s, _some people still have these 'W' numbers_, ticking timebombs for anyone relying on them as a key.
It's pretty normal to memorize your 9 digit social security number, in the same way you know your phone number. Because the SSN card is a fundamental piece of identity theft, it's common practice to NOT carry the number in your wallet. You never know when you'll need the number, and very rarely need the actual card. I don't think I've ever used my physical SSN card in the last 5 years, but I need to provide the number itself quite often, especially on financial, employment, and government documents.
In my (shared) office, everyone knew each other's last 4 SSN digits, because whenever on the phone to some random customer service rep, we had to give them to "authenticate".
Some people (especially older women) don't know their own SSN, just their husbands'. If they never had a job, there wasn't much use for an SSN. And if their spouse passed away, they always had to use the deceased's SSN to collect survivor's benefits (or whatever it's called).
I've seen it more than once when working with health records: two people have the exact same SSN, but different sex. If I need to match records, I'll use SSN and birthdate, knowing even that's not immune to errors.
It's a secret that you are compelled to share with many many entities. And apparently it is hard coded into 'too many' places to change. I would bet the US is still using SSNs of the exact same format when I'm long dead.
reply