For gov't use only (Score 1)

What happened to the days when your SSN for for government use only. I wasn't around when the SSN was first used, but I heard that is was sold the the American people as a number that only the government would be able to use. In fact, I've been told that it was illegal for non-government agencies to use it at all, or even request it. What happened to those laws? If this is such an important number, why is it so easy to get from someone? I know I've placed mine on many forms I've filled out. Forms for employment, to see doctors, to get car insurance, etc. I can understand needing it to track people's past for credit and such, but why use it as their customer number? Why not just keep it on file, securely, separate from the day to day data. Instead these companies and schools use it as THE number to identify customers and students. Why not just number these people with their own scheme? They don't need the SSN for everyday transactions, so the SSN shouldn't be in everyday data, like on my bill or with my alumni data. So I went to school at UCLA (actually I didn't, I'm role playing), to contact me for that next Alumni meeting you do NOT need my SSN.