It's time to stop using Social Security Numbers

With identity theft skyrocketing, we need to stop using Social Security Numbers as the main identifier for Americans. It's very easy to get someone's Social Security Number and that makes identity theft easy.

Social Security Numbers should be used for Social Security purposes only. These numbers should not be used for credit card purposes or to determine credit scores on your credit reports. We need to establish another unique identifier for credit purposes.

On Monday, we found one more reason to stop using Social Security Numbers. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have used computers and statistical predictability to discover Social Security Numbers of millions of Americans. They do this using only an individual’s date of birth and birthplace. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.