And we need to do this because the effing federal government couldn't stick with one basic rule. I'm old enough to remember when the social security number COULD NOT be used for any other purpose. Then along came 1968 and the military phased out service numbers in favor of social security numbers, and then the downward slide accelerated until today EVERYONE uses your social security number as an ID code. That was originally supposed to be illegal. If they had just stayed with that, there wouldn't be a problem.