Social Security Numbers (H 5202, S 179)

An ACLU bill that has been enacted into law bars most merchants from demanding any part of a customer’s social security number as a condition of commercial transactions.  A ten-year old law already banned demands for SSN’s, but some businesses exploited a loophole in the law by requiring customers to provide only the last four digits of their number. However, privacy experts and the ACLU testified that collection of the last four digits, which is the only random part of a social security number, put Rhode Islanders at risk for identity theft.  This legislation, sponsored by Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy and Sen. Domenic Ruggerio and signed into law, closes that loophole.  Read testimony concerning the bill by Robert Ellis Smith, attorney and publisher of the Privacy Journal newsletter, here.