[josephlord]

An SSN is quite a good ID in that it should uniquely identify WHO is being discussed but it is a lousy authenticator to prove you ARE the person being discussed. Unfortunately in the US it seems to be regarded as a shared secret (between you, every credit reference agency, significant portions of the government, every bank you use, every employer you have and significant numbers of people working for all those groups) that they then use as authentication. What is needed is a separate authentication process.