Social Security Numbers: Governments Could Do More to Reduce Display in Public Records and on Identity Cards GAO-05-59, November 9, 2004. Highlights.
“Social Security numbers appear in any number of records exposed to public view almost everywhere in the nation, primarily at the state and local levels of government. State agencies in 41 states and the District of Columbia reported visible SSNs in at least one type of record and a few states have them in as many as 10 or more different records. SSNs are most often to be found in state and local court records and in local property ownership records, but they are also scattered throughout a variety of other government records.”
