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:
“I complacently accepted the social order in which I was brought up. I probably would have continued in my complacency if the happy necessity of self-support had not fallen to my lot; if self-support had not deepened and widened my contacts and my experience.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Those words freedom and opportunity do not mean a license to climb upwards by pushing other people down. Any paternalistic system that tries to provide for security for everyone from above only calls for an impossible task and a regimentation utterly uncongenial to the spirit of our people.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The quality of moral behaviour varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)