Name: Tess
Home: St. Louis
A Little Vent
You know what annoys me? When people ask for my Social Security Number when they don't need it.
I have no problem giving it to employers, or anyone else who is giving me taxable income. But recently I went to a new doctor's office, and they said I needed to give them my SSN. I asked why. They said they needed a unique identifying number. I requested an alternate number. Then they asked for Tom's SSN, since our health insurance is in his name. I told them our health insurance no longer uses SSNs for identification purposes. In the end, those spaces were left blank on the form.
It amazes me how many people ask for those numbers when they have no business having them. Ben's pediatrician, the testing lab, and his ENT all gave me paperwork with a space for his SSN, and I left all the spaces blank. Only the ENT's office questioned me. Right after we moved here, the person at the video rental desk at the grocery story told me I would have to give my SSN to rent videos. When I refused, she had to make a phone call to obtain an alternate number for me.
Giving a SSN may seem like a small request, but I don't want to grant it. All it takes is one shifty staff member at the doctor's office to copy down my name, birthdate, and SSN, and voila--identity theft. Giving away Ben's SSN is even more ridiculous; I don't want my child's credit ruined before he even understands money. I try to be sympathetic to the staff, so I usually explain I'm especially concerned because my brother's identity was stolen. It caused him all kinds of headaches--and this for a person who never even carries a balance on his credit card.
It was bad enough when someone stole Tom's credit card number (probably from an audit of the hotels.com site); we were both surprised when Western Union thought he had wired $290 worth of Euros to Germany. That was easily fixed, though, and he was issued a new card. Combating full-blown identity theft is much more difficult. Businesses need to get with the program and come up with alternate means of identifying their customers. In the meantime, we need to take steps to protect our personal information.
I have no problem giving it to employers, or anyone else who is giving me taxable income. But recently I went to a new doctor's office, and they said I needed to give them my SSN. I asked why. They said they needed a unique identifying number. I requested an alternate number. Then they asked for Tom's SSN, since our health insurance is in his name. I told them our health insurance no longer uses SSNs for identification purposes. In the end, those spaces were left blank on the form.
It amazes me how many people ask for those numbers when they have no business having them. Ben's pediatrician, the testing lab, and his ENT all gave me paperwork with a space for his SSN, and I left all the spaces blank. Only the ENT's office questioned me. Right after we moved here, the person at the video rental desk at the grocery story told me I would have to give my SSN to rent videos. When I refused, she had to make a phone call to obtain an alternate number for me.
Giving a SSN may seem like a small request, but I don't want to grant it. All it takes is one shifty staff member at the doctor's office to copy down my name, birthdate, and SSN, and voila--identity theft. Giving away Ben's SSN is even more ridiculous; I don't want my child's credit ruined before he even understands money. I try to be sympathetic to the staff, so I usually explain I'm especially concerned because my brother's identity was stolen. It caused him all kinds of headaches--and this for a person who never even carries a balance on his credit card.
It was bad enough when someone stole Tom's credit card number (probably from an audit of the hotels.com site); we were both surprised when Western Union thought he had wired $290 worth of Euros to Germany. That was easily fixed, though, and he was issued a new card. Combating full-blown identity theft is much more difficult. Businesses need to get with the program and come up with alternate means of identifying their customers. In the meantime, we need to take steps to protect our personal information.
posted by Tess | 11:56 AM
4 Comments:
I couldn't agree with your more! I have refused to give my number several times--and more and more often. It's surprising, too, how nasty some have gotten when I refuse. It's _my_ personal info and they don't need it...and I've said so.
Hh
i do want to clarify/emphasize that hotels.com has been very good to me over the years, and apparently it was an employee of their external auditing company that screwed up and let a laptop with credit card numbers get stolen.
You know what, I feel exactly the same way. I just have never had the notion to tell them NO. I will from no on though. Thanks for writing this one.
Elisa--
It's hard to say no sometimes--I hate conflict--but I've only ever had one person refused to back down, so I gave in on that one.
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