Over on Slashdot, The Angry Mick describes his experiences trying to get businesses to delete his SSN from their databases and to replace it with an alternative identifier.
Then there was DirectTV. This company not only flatly refused to consider the suggestion, but also informed me that even if I were to discontinue service with them, they still intended to keep my full SSN on file indefinitely. There is no logical reason for them to do this, and I’m not keen on the idea of being left vulnerable to identity theft should they have experience any security breaches at any future point in my life.
See the ensuing discussion about getting companies to remove your SSN.