Public Records That May Contain Social Security Numbers

Many people are interested in finding other people’s social security numbers. Anyway, it is illegal to search for ssn’s in order to use them for any purpose other than defined by law, and you can’t do that unless you have authorization from a court, government agency etc. where you work as employee or agent. This what a private individual may be sued for in a court, if done. In part, it is prohibited to publish on the Internet the social security numbers you unintentionally may have got a hold of while surfing on the Internet.

Some public records still containing full or partial social security numbers are:

Mortgage records
Real property transfer records
Real or personal property lien records
Real property ownership records
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings
Federal or state tax liens
Records related to criminal proceedings (e.g., pleadings, filings, rulings)
Records related to civil proceedings
Records of judgments
Records of orders
public criminal records
Probate, estate, or inheritance records
Traffic records
Child support or custody records
Military Discharge Records
Other

Normally social security numbers are being redacted or truncated (shortened to display fewer digits) before the records are open for public access.

Many states, like Indiana, have progressive laws protecting even against the governmental use of Social Security Numbers. Still, just a few years ago, before the stricter measures were taken, many Social Security Numbers kept appearing on Sex Offend Registry websites and websites of Universities, thus provoking identity theft related crimes and other illegitimate uses of Social Security Numbers.

The situation at some moment took such a serious turn that many states, such as Arizona, Colorado, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Washington, and West Virginia, adopted special laws banning public universities and colleges from using SSNs as student IDs.

C. Dyson is an author of many articles on various subjects for many websites amongst which is criminal background check resource center.