Social Security Number Use Restrictions Wanted

A poll released Friday by the Consumers Union released suggests that a large majority of Americans support government action that would restrict the use of Social Security numbers to help prevent identity theft.

The poll, which was conducted through a telephone survey of more than 1,000 American adults, found that 89 percent of consumers thought that the government should pass laws that restrict the use of Social Security numbers by outside parties, and that 97 percent of consumers said they should have the right to freeze access to their credit files if their Social Security number is stolen.

"The widespread use of Social Security numbers has made it easier for crooks to commit fraud," said Jeannine Kenny, the senior policy analyst at the Consumers Union, a non-profit consumer advocacy group. "It's time to restrict the availability of Social Security numbers to prevent this sensitive information from falling into the hands of identity thieves."

Currently, the Consumers Union is advocating national legislation that would restrict companies' ability to share or sell Social Security numbers, and would guarantee that consumers had a low-cost option for freezing access to their credit information.

"We need to reduce the number of Social Security numbers in the marketplace, and we can do that by restricting their sale and purchase," Kenny says.

The survey found that 87 percent of respondents had been asked in the past year to produce their Social Security number in whole or in part by the government or by a business. Some 78 percent of consumers surveyed said that they were reluctant to provide their Social Security number to businesses or the government, but were also concerned about being denied services for refusing to do so. Only 28 percent of respondents who were asked to provide their Social Security number refused to give it, the survey found.

In 2006, the Federal Trade Commission received roughly 241,000 ID fraud complaints, and has received over a million ID fraud complaints since 2002. A 2003 survey published by the FTC, however, suggests that incidence of ID fraud is much more widespread than the total number of complaints the FTC receives each year, as 12.7 percent of respondents reported being victims of some sort of identity fraud within the past five years.