(Army Times) Editorial: Keep SSNs private

[unhappycamper]

Editorial: Keep SSNs private

The Defense Department is in the midst of a multiyear effort to eliminate full Social Security numbers from ID cards.

The new Common Access Card issued to service members does not include SSNs. ID cards for family members and retirees will also drop SSNs, or at least all but the last four digits, within a few years.

~snip~

“Today, all of our (computer) systems can ‘talk’ to each other, so we don’t necessarily need to know all of that information printed on your card,” Mary Dixon, the Defense Department’s Common Access Card program manager, said in April.

Not quite all systems. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Navy Exchange Service Command still require patrons paying by check to produce a document showing their SSN. AAFES even requires an SSN to process a refund on a returned item.

That means that even as SSNs vanish from ID cards, the exchanges are forcing patrons to physically possess some other crucial document, such as a Social Security card or a passport, in order to write a check or get a refund at the stores.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/community/opinion/army_editorial_ssns_082508/