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Editorial: Keep SSNs private

The Defense Department is in the midst of a multiyear effort to eliminate full Social Security numbers from ID cards.

The new Common Access Card issued to service members does not include SSNs. ID cards for family members and retirees will also drop SSNs, or at least all but the last four digits, within a few years.

Many states no longer use SSNs for driver’s license numbers.

The reason is simple: In the digital age, a Social Security number is all a savvy thief needs to steal someone’s identity and ruin his credit rating.

“Today, all of our [computer] systems can ‘talk’ to each other, so we don’t necessarily need to know all of that information printed on your card,” Mary Dixon, the Defense Department’s Common Access Card program manager, said in April.

Not quite all systems. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service and Navy Exchange Service Command still require patrons paying by check to produce a document showing their SSN. AAFES even requires an SSN to process a refund on a returned item.

That means that even as SSNs vanish from ID cards, the exchanges are forcing patrons to physically possess some other crucial document, such as a Social Security card or a passport, in order to write a check or get a refund at the stores.

The AAFES and NEXCOM policies are defeating the Defense Department’s efforts to get Social Security numbers out of public view.

No commercial retailer would require customers to verify Social Security numbers. No military exchange should, either.

DISCUSS: Why are the exchanges behind civilian retailers?