Originally Posted by
LondonElite
Maybe because I'm not American I'm missing some fine point, but is your SSN not on dozens of documents that go out by mail all the time? For example, I recently set up online billing for our place in Florida. The SSN was a required field. I couldn't fill that out and had to find a workaround with the call centre. My does the electricity company need a SSN? I'll bet that if I stole one letter at random from every mailbox on a particular street, I'd have a number of SSNs at my disposal.
You generally have to give it out since it's used for credit reporting purposes. Can be to decide if you're worth doing business with (will you pay your bill) and/or to report out failure to pay your bill.
It however isn't generally printed on documents that are mailed. If it is, generally only the last 4 numbers are printed. SSN is one thing needed to open a bank account or get credit/loan. Thus while have to give it out, it's normally treated with some extra security.