In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. ยง 405(c)(2). The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the United States government. Its primary purpose is to track individuals for Social Security purposes.
A Social Security number may be obtained by applying on Form SS-5, "Application for A Social Security Number Card".
Over time, the number has been used for more diverse purposes than simply taxes, essentially making it a de facto national identification number.
Read more about Social Security Number: History, Purpose and Use, Types of Social Security Cards, Identity Theft, Structure, Exhaustion and Re-use, Valid SSNs, SSNs Invalidated By Use in Advertising
Famous quotes containing the words social, security and/or number:
“The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
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—David Elkind (20th century)
“My idea is that the world outside—the so-called modern world—can only pervert and degrade the conceptions of the primitive instinct of art and feeling, and that our only chance is to accept the limited number of survivors—the one- in-a-thousand of born artists and poets—and to intensify the energy of feeling within that radiant centre.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)