-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <v03102800afb7ba21be7b@[207.167.93.63]>, on 06/01/97 at 04:54 PM, Tim May <tcmay@got.net> said:
I have no idea why they want a SS number, except perhaps that they see every government office demanding it and so they think it is part of the ID process. I of course would not give it. One is always free to turn down their offer of a 40 cent discount on eggs. Sounds fair to me.
IMHO the request for SS numbers are usally done out of convieniance more than anything else. This is not to justify it just an explanation why so many palces request SS numbers. Anyone that has written database software where unique information is stored on individules a SS number is quite convienat as everyone has a unique one. Most employee, payroll, medical, insurance, credit, databases use SS numbers rather than create individule id #'s. One's SS number has 2 unique qualities that make it perfect for this use: 1 every person has a unique #, and 2 it never changes. This can not be said for any other identifiers one may use, names, addresses, DL #'s, ...ect all have the possiablity to change over time while your SS # is forever. By using SS # as id #'s makes communication of data between diffrent database all that much simpler. From personal experiance I can testify that the entier Medical Insurance system is based on using SS # as identification. I shudder to think trying to track medical records of patients over a period of years between different doctors, hospitals, insurance companies without using them. I will not go into the privacy issues involved in using SS #'s for id #'s as I am sure the members of the list are quite familiar with them. I just wanted to point out that in some industries there is a technical advantage to having 1 universal id #. Now with that being said I personally would not shead any tears seeing SS and SS #'s gone and to never return. - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html - --------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: cp850 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBM5IYe49Co1n+aLhhAQGsbgP+IyHuNAupRENc/wxZy8Btq8ufLlncdhwN CfVOmYMzcIPN2WX2psttCNKKHxxxMLtw7ZRtlBWDOV+P06JyictVWr3hae031mDR 7VvZqkS1GY6wik6j/5aABhjH07BVzHFCIM2uYyPX0HAo46JTWqGabcxs6+kSGFoU tlAsPO6J4cs= =l6A4 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----