[mindslight]

> unless a version containing the unredacted SSN is floating around

That is not a good reason. Social Security numbers are not secret, rather they're akin to a name equivalent. Negligent companies continue abusing them as if knowing them proves identity, because they apparently find it more profitable to reduce customer friction and then eat the resulting fraud (at least the fraud they can't push on to others). This and the financial industry's whole larger "identity theft" ruse is supported by the needless tiptoeing around ID numbers, and we need to just stop.