Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 16:09:02 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <200005112009.QAA18088@mattababy.mit.edu>
From: belmonte@mit.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
To: CapuanoHR8@aol.com
Subject: Social Security Number privacy

Dear Representative Capuano

In today's New York Times, opinion columnist William Safire reflects on the
damage caused by identity theft, and the fact that the rampant use of Social
Security Numbers as identifiers is making such thefts all too easy and all too
common (http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/safire/051100safi.html).
At a hearing held this week by Representative Clay Shaw of Florida, an elderly
retiree testified about how his credit and privacy had been destroyed by a
fraud artist who had managed to obtain his Social Security Number.

At the inception of the Social Security system in the 1930s, it was stipulated
that the Social Security Number was not to be used for identification.  During
the intervening years, and particularly during the explosion of e-commerce
during the 1990s, many companies and organisations have turned to the use of
the Social Security Number as an identifier, for lack of a more secure and
equally convenient alternative.  However, the costs of this common usage have
been great, and they will continue to increase unless legislation is passed to
outlaw trade in Social Security Numbers and any similar identifiers.

The technology exists today to create `smart cards' that can serve as a more
secure alternative to the all-too-public Social Security Number.  (In fact,
one such system is under development as a student project here at MIT, with
support from the Microsoft I-Campus fund.)  However, the economic incentive to
adopt such new technologies will come only when the de facto system of
identification by Social Security Number is no longer so prevalent.  I urge you
to support legislation that would protect retirees and employees alike, by
curbing the use of the Social Security Number.  Legislation that would
accomplish exactly this end has been introduced by Representatives Jerry
Kleczka, Jim McDermott, Ed Markey and Ron Paul.