DoD to Remove SSN from ID Card

[HMC-FMF-PJ]

DoD Prepares to Remove SSNs from Family ID Cards
In response to Congressional pressure to protect service members and their families from identity theft, the Department of Defense is moving ahead with plans to remove Social Security numbers (SSNs) from identity cards. SSNs will be removed from the identity cards of family members by year’s end and replaced temporarily by the sponsor’s SSN. By 2009, the SSN will also be removed from service members’ ID cards. More information about this issue is available from the Army Times online at http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/military_id_cards_040408w/.

[DeeDee]

DOH!!! They should have done this YEARS ago.

[MAWDoc]

They need to do it for active duty, too. I just got my son a new card yesterday, and while his SSN is only the last 4, mine is still on there in full. WTF?

[HMC-FMF-PJ]

Actually I would prefer the SSN evolve back to its original purpose but that is a different rant.

The military should go back to using Serial Numbers / Service Numbers. The system worked just fine from 1905 (?) to 1974* and did not put the individual at risk like the SSN does.

The SSN was just for old age pensions then disability/medicare benefits and illegal to use for idntification purposes. But the Fed gov started requiring its use to ID government employees in the early 60's and the IRS elected to use it for the individual Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN or ITIN) around 1962. In the mid-1980's when the tax law changed and parents had to provide SSN's to claim tax deduction for their kids and companies could use SSN's to establish eligibility for work. Soon just about everyone was using it as an Identification Number and they started issuing SSN automatically at the hospital upon birth. In the 1990's - with the explosion of the internet, identity theft, and a few other factors - there was a widespread grassroots revolt against the casual use and disclosure of the SSN & other personal info. Since 2000 most new SSN related regulation has to do with protection and privacy.

The military is slowly catching on and hopfully they will soon view SSN use as a failed experiment and go back to Serial Numbers / Service Numbers. The military service number would still be linked to the SSN in a master file, but the SSN would rarely see the light of day and for day-to-day operations you would use your service number (like account numbers or student ID numbers)

There are now laws and military regulations against previously "acceptable" use of the SSN; however, some "old school" individuals are slow to break old habits or change their business practices. There are numerous examples of inappropriate use and disclosure throughout the military and you can likely find many at your local command. ALNAV 070/07, ALNAV 057/07, NAVADMIN 121/07, and ALNAV 059/06 are a little indication of how widespread the problem is and signal that the upper leadership has started to take it very serious.

http://www.privacy.navy.mil/
https://hqdod.hqmc.usmc.mil/PII.asp


* I'm not sure, but I believe the military started using SSN's for boots as early as late 1968 but didn't required SSN use for all personnel until 1974.

[HMC-FMF-PJ]

BTW, applying for a SSN is totally voluntary and by-law you are *not* required to have one.

However, once you are assigned a SSN you are in the system for life. Furthermore, if you do not "volunteer" to participate in the "voluntary" SSN system then you are prevented from obtaining virtually all gov benefits and forbidden from participating in virtually all gov regulated activities (like driving or banking). Now, since 2001, you cannot even travel without government credentials (gov issued ID card) that first require you to "voluntarily" obtain a SSN.

Another unique component of SSN's is that, as far as I know, it is the only area where parents may obligate their children to a binding contract for the life of the child. Once in the SSN system, the child is prohibited from dissolving the contract signed by his parent. Normally in virtually all other aspects of life, at the age of 18, an adult child is allowed to make his own decisions and is not bound to contracts signed by a custodian when the child was a minor.

[sailorsgirl777]

we were just talking about this yesterday. I hate how my ID has both my SSN on it and my husbands! I am so glad they are doing that!