"Couple's refusal to disclose Social Security numbers proves costly" was the headline to an AP story the Indianapolis Star published on Jan. 3, 2005. Some quotes:
VALPARAISO, IND. -- A northwestern Indiana couple says they have faced hardships for two decades because they refuse to disclose their Social Security numbers. Dave and Pat Wallin live in an old recreational vehicle that has been parked for two years on private property in rural Porter County.Reading this recalled a Feb. 26, 2004 ILB entry on a 2/24/04 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report on private use of the Social Security number. The GAO explanation of why it did the study (from the one-page executive summary):The couple, both in their 50s, lost their home in a tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service in the 1980s, The Times of Munster reported Sunday. Since 1986, the Wallins have refused to divulge their Social Security numbers to anyone, including government agencies, creditors, employers and police.
That has proven difficult when public agencies and private businesses of all sorts - including public schools, license branches and hospitals - routinely require the numbers for identification. * * *
Officials said she cannot receive a license without providing the number.
"It's the law," said Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles spokesman Dan Henkel. The requirement was started in 2001 as a means of tracking deadbeat parents, he said, and the state plans soon to begin using software that will sort through its database matching numbers from various agencies.
The Wallins believe using Social Security numbers as a "tracking number" could threaten individual freedom.
In 1936, the Social Security Administration (SSA) established the Social Security number (SSN) to track workers’ earnings for Social Security benefit purposes. However, the SSN is also used for a myriad of non-Social Security purposes. Today, public and private sector entities view the SSN as a key piece of information that enables them to conduct their business and deliver services. However, given the apparent rise in identity crimes as well as the rapidly increasing availability of information over the Internet, Congress has raised concern over how certain private sector entities obtain, use, and safeguard SSN data. * * *The 2/26/04 Indiana Law Blog entry asked "What About Indiana?" and reported:
[emphasis added]
In 1978 the State of Indiana enacted a law providing that "No individual may be compelled by any state agency, board, commission, department, bureau, or other entity of state government to provide the individual's Social Security number to the state agency against the individual's will, absent federal requirements to the contrary." This law was the result of 12/1/76 recommendations of Governor Otis Bowen's Commission on Individual Privacy. This group was charged with investigating and making recommendations on, among other things, "the use of social security numbers, license plate numbers, universal identifiers and other symbols to identify individuals in data bases and to gain access to, integrate or centralize information systems and files."According to page 24 of the full (35-page) GAO report:Take a look at that same law as it exists today, IC 4-1-8-1. Today, twenty-six years later, the law has been amended over and over and now contains a list of dozens of exemptions, which appear to exclude most state government functions from the prohibition against requiring an individual to provide her social security number.
At least six states have enacted their own legislation to restrict private sector uses of SSNs. Based on our review of select legislative documents within 18 states, California, Missouri, Arizona, Georgia, Utah, and Texas had enacted laws to restrict either the display or the use of SSNs.I am not aware of any Indiana law restricting private sector use of SSNs. Posted by Marcia Oddi at January 9, 2005 09:34 AM