Comments on: What’s your Social Security Number again? http://www.michealcottingham.com/blog/2008/07/03/whats-your-social-security-number-again/ Just another useless blog Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:25:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Dave Rathbun http://www.michealcottingham.com/blog/2008/07/03/whats-your-social-security-number-again/#comment-21 Dave Rathbun Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:37:16 +0000 http://www.michealcottingham.com/blog/?p=18#comment-21 I've lost clients because I refused to give them my SSN. I'm not talking about private clients (for web / phpbb work) but real companies in my real job. If you're not paying me a 1099, then you don't need my SSN. And since my company is billing your company for my services, and you won't be responsible for taking out taxes and so on, you don't need it. It used to be okay to request and use the SSN for an identifier because you knew it was going to be unique. Well, it's supposed to be anyway. With illegal immigration, identity theft, and other scenarios along those lines it's now a much bigger issue. The problem is, it's tough to come up with an alternative. Anything issued by the state or federal government can be co-opted just like your SSN. Anything that is unique to a company because a pain to remember, since you'll have a different ID for every company that you deal with. I’ve lost clients because I refused to give them my SSN. I’m not talking about private clients (for web / phpbb work) but real companies in my real job. If you’re not paying me a 1099, then you don’t need my SSN. And since my company is billing your company for my services, and you won’t be responsible for taking out taxes and so on, you don’t need it.

It used to be okay to request and use the SSN for an identifier because you knew it was going to be unique. Well, it’s supposed to be anyway. With illegal immigration, identity theft, and other scenarios along those lines it’s now a much bigger issue. The problem is, it’s tough to come up with an alternative.

Anything issued by the state or federal government can be co-opted just like your SSN. Anything that is unique to a company because a pain to remember, since you’ll have a different ID for every company that you deal with.

]]>