{
  "id": "RL30318",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "id": 450967,
      "date": "2014-02-04",
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      "title": "The Social Security Number: Legal Developments Affecting Its Collection, Disclosure, and Confidentiality",
      "summary": "While the social security number (SSN) was first introduced as a device for keeping track of contributions to the Social Security program, its use has been expanded by government entities and the private sector to keep track of many other government and private sector records. Use of the SSN as a federal government identifier was based on Executive Order 9397, issued by President Franklin Roosevelt. Beginning in the 1960s, federal agencies started adopting the SSN as a governmental identifier, and its use for keeping track of government records, on both the federal and state levels, greatly increased.\nSection 7 of the Privacy Act of 1974 provided some limits on compulsory divulgence of the social security number to government entities. However, exceptions in that statute and succeeding statutes resulted in only minimal restrictions on governmental usage of the SSN. Today, an individual needs an SSN to pay taxes, obtain a driver\u2019s license, and open a bank account, among other things. The continued use of, and reliance on, SSNs by public and private sector entities and the potential for SSN misuse, including identity theft concerns, has led to increasing efforts by governmental entities to limit the use and disclosure of SSNs. However, no single federal law comprehensively regulates SSN collection and confidentiality. \nConstitutional challenges to the collection of social security numbers by government agencies have, for the most part, been unsuccessful. Thus, various courts have held that requiring an SSN on a driver\u2019s license application is constitutional, as is the requirement that persons disclose their SSNs as a condition for receiving welfare benefits or food stamps. In cases where an individual\u2019s SSN is publicly displayed or disseminated, court challenges in recent years have been more successful, particularly where fundamental rights such as the right to vote or the right to free speech are involved. With regard to the display of SSNs in online public records, or in cases involving requests for SSNs under federal or state open records statutes, the courts have attempted to balance the public\u2019s interest in the transparency of government processes with the private individual\u2019s interest in the confidentiality of personal identification and security information.\nThe chronology at the end of this report provides a comprehensive list of federal developments affecting use of the social security number from 1935 to the present. This list includes federal statutes regulating the collection and disclosure of SSNs, as well as specific authorizations for the use of SSNs, confidentiality provisions, and criminal provisions relating to SSN misuse.",
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      "id": "RL30318_2012Feb08",
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    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc811690/",
      "id": "RL30318_2008Oct02",
      "date": "2008-10-02",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "The Social Security Number: Legal Developments Affecting Its Collection, Disclosure, and Confidentiality",
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    },
    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc770568/",
      "id": "RL30318_2008Feb21",
      "date": "2008-02-21",
      "retrieved": "2015-11-04T09:58:14",
      "title": "The Social Security Number: Legal Developments Affecting Its Collection, Disclosure, and Confidentiality",
      "summary": "This report provides a comprehensive list of federal developments affecting use of social security numbers (SSNs), from 1935 to the present. This list includes federal statutes regulating the collection and disclosure of SSNs, as well as specific authorizations for the use of SSNs, confidentiality provisions, and criminal provisions relating to SSN misuse.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
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      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Information disclosure (Securities law)",
          "name": "Information disclosure (Securities law)"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Social security",
          "name": "Social security"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Social security numbers",
          "name": "Social security numbers"
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    {
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      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc811654/",
      "id": "RL30318_2005Jan21",
      "date": "2005-01-21",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "The Social Security Number: Legal Developments Affecting Its Collection, Disclosure and Confidentiality",
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  "topics": [
    "Constitutional Questions",
    "Domestic Social Policy",
    "Intelligence and National Security",
    "National Defense"
  ]
}