Comment Re:Bad news. XD (Score 2, Insightful) 505
I sincerely doubt the customer service rep has any idea whether or not the SSN is really gone. I'm sure they're more than happy to change the number displayed on the screen in front of them though, and as far as they are concerned that means the old number has disappeared.
But yes, behind the scenes, the SSN is almost certainly still present in a change log or on backup tapes somewhere. There's zero chance these companies go through the effort to completely purge your SSN from every log and tape. Once they have that number in their system, they've got it forever.
But yes, behind the scenes, the SSN is almost certainly still present in a change log or on backup tapes somewhere. There's zero chance these companies go through the effort to completely purge your SSN from every log and tape. Once they have that number in their system, they've got it forever.