Social Security Numbers Have Morphed Into Identity Theft Vehicles

As a result, Gruber added, "the new process will also extend the pool of SSNs available for assignment nationwide."

Johnson noted that Congress "needs to get to work on identity theft and limiting access to Social Security numbers" and reintroduced the same day the Medicare Identity Theft Prevention Act, which removes the Social Security number from the Medicare card.

"It makes no sense that people are told, 'Don't carry your Social Security card in order to protect your identity,' but then every senior citizen is told, 'Carry your Medicare card,' which displays prominently the Social Security number."

Jeremey Grant, managing director of Technology Business Strategy at the law firm Venable LLP, told the lawmakers that the government must recognize the contradiction surrounding Social Security numbers and "take steps to put policies in place that are more consistent and put us on a path toward a system that enhances security and privacy and convenience for Americans."

The SSN "is simultaneously presumed to be both secret and public — secret, because we tell individuals to guard their SSN closely; public, because we have multiple laws that require individuals to give it out to facilitate all sorts of interactions with industry and government," Grant said.

"Secret because we then tell those entities to ensure that if they store it, which the law often requires them to do, that it be protected," he continued. "And public because it's proven quite hard to do to the point that the majority of Americans' SSNs have been compromised multiple times over the last several years amidst the wave of data breaches."