Doesn’t it have your social security number?

I run a small business and I need to collect W-9's from basically everyone I ever pay, which means I have an absurd amount of SSN's in PDFs sitting in a folder on my computer. It feels very wrong, but apparently that's how taxes work. Kind of makes SSN's feel less secure/protection-worthy than I used to believe shrug

First job out of college I was given, with no oversight or training, access to thousands of peoples SSNs, names, phone numbers and addresses. I also had a private investigator locate someone from my childhood once and got not only their phone number, address, and SSN but their entire family and neighbors and anyone who had a name similar to theirs. It's outrageous how insecure everything is.

Between the Equifax breech and others, hasn't the average American had their SSN compromised several times over by now?

I've found addresses of people in USA based on: their entire name; their first name and the state they live in, and confirmed by a single friend's name; their name, city and that they lived near a golf course

Then you can see where they've ever lived, and who with. All for free

> It feels very wrong, but apparently that's how taxes work. Kind of makes SSN's feel less secure/protection-worthy than I used to believe shrug

It is very right, because social security numbers are not meant to be a secret.

What is wrong is being liable for a debt (or whatever) because a creditor failed to properly verify the identity of a borrower.

Those whole situation can be easily fixed by removing the ability of lenders and governments to claim they verified identity by simply asking for SSN/date if birth.

We have pocket computers with video cameras that can record and transmit spoken agreements within seconds, and we have a nationwide network of USPS offices that already do in person identity verification for issuing passports. Executing the solution is basically done, all that is left is political.

> What is wrong is being liable for a debt (or whatever) because a creditor failed to properly verify the identity of a borrower

You're never liable for a debt you didn't sign for. If someone else used your information, don't pay it. The court will always side with you.

Having to spend time and money to deal with the courts is a liability.

Also, credit and credit reporting is utility/infrastructure with how life is lived, including access to a place to live. So much that the federal government obligated credit reporting agencies to provide people an annual report. Having to spend time and money to fix it is also a liability, in my opinion.

No need to deal with courts. Just ignore it.

Conventionally, yes.. but there's no reason the IRS has to use this alone to identify me. Conceivably, it would be very easy to check a box on my W-9 and have a unique yearly "Tax ID" generated and placed on my W-2. Then I can file using that unique number and the imputed need of the highest security ever can just evaporate.

I'm not talking about "tax returns", I'm talking about "SSO used by citizens/residents/customers for the federal government", which is what login.gov is.