So you have surrendered to the erosion of personal privacy, personal rights and personal integrity; I haven't and neither has the author of the post. You may be one of those willing to trade your rights for convenience. I too would refuse my Social Security number.
So you only use pre-paid cellular, do not use credit cards or take out loans, or any other transaction that requires interacting with a credit agency?
How's that working out for you? Seriously. Living a life without interacting with the credit agencies in this day and age is difficult, and I'd like to know what you have to give up (like discounts on phones in exchange for contracts, etc) in order to keep your SSN completely private. (Where Completely = You, your employer, your health insurer (if you have one) and the gov't.)
I also refuse to provide my SS for consumer products. I am willing to provide it when applying for a loan which I have done for homes and cars. I am willing to provide it to employers and other tax documents. I have also provided it for credit cards (although I regret ever doing business with credit card companies) - but I have REFUSED to provide it twice for cell phones (most recently for a 1G Iphone w/ ATT) with complete success. I have also refused to provide it for employment applications - no one needs a credit check to decide if they want to hire me (note: I have submitted to and passed background checks for security clearance where the position required it - this is a different situation).
I wish more people would refuse to provide their SS - maybe people would stop asking for it when they don't really need it
(No, a cell phone doesn't need it - your landline didn't need to open a line of credit 10 years ago, and $2.99/min sex lines were perfectly available and billable).
It's not about keeping the SS completely secret - it's about minimizing risk by not handing it over to just anybody who asks.
We (the U.S.) have become too obsessed with credit scores - and too free about giving up our privacy (in my opinion).
Sorry if this reply has turned into a rant..I've just gotten progressively irritated reading this thread - I just don't think it's some kind of crazy tin-foil hat thing to try and push back against corporations treating our personal information so frivolously.
just my $.02 :)
