Social Security Numbers and Transcripts

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 by Aaron Titus

Though most colleges and universities no longer use the Social Security Number as the Student ID, financial, lending, and some hold-out colleges regrettably use the SSN as a convenient, but unnecessary identifying number. Because of the sensitive nature of the SSN, a few states, including New York, have outlawed placing the Social Security Number on official University documents, including transcripts; professionals and government officials uniformly warn of the dangers of disseminating a SSN. Notwithstanding, a student's name, Social Security Number, and birth date appears on a distinct minority of nationally ranked school's transcripts and students are not given the option to hide this sensitive information.

Download MP3 (7:16min, 6.7MB)

January 2007 Survey of Nationally Ranked University Registrars
By January 2007, only ¼ of nationally ranked universities placed student SSNs on their transcripts, without allowing students to hide or withhold it.
2003 AACRAO National Registrar Survey
In 2003, more than ¾ of national colleges & universities reported using the SSN on transcripts, to AACRAO.
AACRAO
The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
The Tiler
Music today is Zoomin Home, by The Tiler.

# | Posted in Privacy at School | Identity Security | Comments » (2)

All Comments RSS

  1. Noal Phillips Says:
    January 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    Hello,

    I am president of a security document print company and I just read the article (http://www.adamdodge.com/esi/the_secure_transcript) on secure transcripts and the printing of SSN's on the transcript. We offer a security feature to protect against copying for universities who print ssn's or other ID data on the transcript. We have several versions but one specifically is designed for schools to print sensitive information to prevent it from being ledgible on copies, scans, faxes, etc. while the original remains readable. We also have many other patented features for securing scholastic transcripts but this one seemed fitting for your article.

    You can view a PDF overview of this technology here.
    http://www.isp-vft.com/DownloadBrief/metallicsafessnsafe.pdf

    Regards,

    Noal Phillips
    International Security Products, Inc.
    www.isp-vft.com

  2. Rapid Share Says:
    February 04th, 2010 at 06:37 am

    Fraud involving Social Security numbers has increased in recent years, alarming law enforcement authorities across governmental departments. Stolen numbers have been used in crimes ranging from credit card fraud to illegal immigration.

Your Comment

No audio file allowed

<< previous page :: next page >>