Social Security number: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

In many countries, a Social Security number is a number issued to citizens and other inhabitants for dealing with the Social Security administration and other purposes.

United States of America

A social security number is a nine digit number resembling "123-00-1234" which is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration of the government of the United States. Formerly people often had no social security number until the age of about 15 or 16, since they were used for tax purposes and those under that age seldom had remunerative employment. In the 1980s, the law was altered so that persons without social security numbers could not be claimed as dependents on tax returns. Since then, parents have often applied for social security numbers for their children as soon as they were born.

Purpose and use

The original purpose of this number was to administer the Social Security program, but it has come to be used also as a "primary key" (a de facto national ID number) for individuals within the United States. This is a major example of functionality creep. Payroll, university student records, credit records, and driver's licenses are frequently indexed by Social Security number and hence disclosure and processing of these numbers is of major concern to privacy advocates.

Structure

The nine-digit Social Security number is divided into three parts.

• The first three digits are the area number. [1] If the Social Security number was assigned before 1973 (when Social Security cards were issued by local offices) the area number reflects the State where the Social Security number was applied for. Since 1973, social security numbers have been issued through a central office. For the most part, (there are exceptions), the area is determined by where the individual applied for the SSN (before 1972) or resided at time of application (after 1972). As the areas assigned to a locality are exhausted, new areas from the pool are assigned. This has caused some states to have noncontiguous groups of Areas.

• The middle two digits are the group number. They have no special geographic or data significance but merely serve to break the number into conveniently sized blocks for orderly issuance.

• The last four digits are serial numbers. They represent a straight numerical sequence of digits from 0001-9999 within the group.

Valid SSNs

Any SSN conforming to one of the following criteria is an invalid number:

• Any field all zeroes (no field of zeroes is ever assigned).
• First three digits above 770

SSNs invalidated by use In advertising

SSNs used in advertising have rendered those numbers invalid. One infamous instance is that of the E. H. Ferree Company in Lockport, New York, which in 1938 decided to promote its product by showing how a Social Security card would fit into its wallets. Over time the number that appeared (078-05-1120) was claimed by over 40,000 people as their own.

Other numbers which have been widely used in advertising include: 002-28-1852, 042-10-3580, 062-36-0749, 078-05-1120, 095-07-3645 128-03-6045, 135-01-6629, 141-18-6941, 165-16-7999, 165-18-7999 165-20-7999, 165-22-7999, 165-24-7999, 189-09-2294, 212-09-7694 212-09-9999, 306-30-2348, 308-12-5070, 468-28-8779, 549-24-1889

In order to prevent misuse, the Social Security Administration requests that Social Security cards shown in advertisements only use numbers guaranteed to be unused and invalid. These approved numbers are in the range 987-65-4320 through 987-65-4329.

The British equivalent is a National Insurance number, generally called a NI Number (NINO), although it is generally only used to administer state benefits, and has not gained the ubiquity of its US equivalent. The number is stylized as LL NN NN NN L, for example AA 01 23 44 B.

The Canadian equivalent is the Social Insurance Number or SIN. The use of a SIN as a "de facto" ID number has not become as widespread in Canada as the SSN has in the USA. There are only certain specified instances where a person must provide a SIN (namely for tax or retirement benefit related issues). In non-specified instances, a business is free to ask for a person's SIN, but they cannot deny service on the basis that the person can't or won't provide one.

In France, "Social Security Number" is the usual name for the INSEE number.

In Malaysia, a 12 digit number similar to "Social Security Number" is call Identification Card or shorten to IC. It is issued as soon as the baby is born.

In Australia, a TFN is a number identifying onself with the Australian Taxation Office.

In Sweden a Personal ID-number (Swedish: personnummer) is used in dealings with public agencies, from health care to the tax authorities. It is also commonly used as a customer number in banks and insurance companies. The number uses ten digits where the first six gives the birth date. The Norwegian equivalent Personal ID-number has eleven digits - the first six gives the birth date, the next three tells which century the person is born and makes the number unique, and the last two is for validity control and donates gender.

In Denmark a CPR number is used in dealings with public agencies, from health care to the tax authorities. It is also commonly used as a customer number in banks and insurance companies.