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It’s time to replace the Social Security number as identification
The theft of personal data, including Social Security numbers, on 143 million Americans shines the spotlight on a big national issue: We shouldn’t be using Social Security numbers as a means of identification in the first place. The Social Security number was created more than 80 years ago as a method to keep track of earnings to compute benefits and was never meant to be a means of identification. In fact, until 1972 the Social Security card said “Not for identification”. Nevertheless, the number has evolved to be a primary method for scores of service providers to identify you, and it’s high time to change that. This MarketWatch article by Kari Paul discusses how new technology called “biometrics” could and should be used to replace the Social Security number as a means to identify consumers. Click here to read more.
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