News

Wall Street Journal: When Companies Ask for Your Social Security Number, Try Saying No 

May 31, 2024

Alan Butler, executive director and president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group that defends privacy online, urges people to ask plenty of questions to show their concerns. 

“Ask them, where will it be stored? For how long? Will it be encrypted? Who will have access to it? These are legitimate questions,” he says. 

… Of course, in some cases, a company won’t back down—and you have to decide if your concerns about privacy outweigh the consequences. “Sometimes, you are going to find yourself in a take-it-or-leave-it situation where they’ll say, ‘Well, taking down your Social Security number is our policy,’ ” says Butler. “And you’re not going to not send your kid to summer space camp over the potential risk of their website being hacked, right?” 

Read more here.

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