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| Elizabeth and Paul Sine SSN |
After I finished completing Buzzy’s Country Store first fishing license last year, I took a picture of the couple with their license (click here for post on it.) Shortly after publishing the blog post however, I received an email from someone telling me that the couple’s Social Security numbers were visible in the photo and that I needed to be careful about putting that sort of info out on the http://www. (I then tweaked the photo to blur out the info.)
However, it made me wonder why Social Security numbers are even needed just to obtain a hunting/fishing license. Then yesterday there was a good article in the Enterprise by James Drake discussing this very issue. Drake notes:
“Just think about this: Let’s say you buy your fishing/hunting license at the little country store down the road. You write down your Social Security number on the form as required and “Bubba” behind the counter, who just got an early release from prison, hands that number over to one of the associates he met while confined to the big government hotel with all that razor wire around it. No, I don’t think we should have to provide this number to obtain a hunting or fishing license.”
Without sounding too paranoid that he was talking about me as “Bubba” at a little country store, I agree with Drake as to questioning why a SS number is even needed at all. He notes that Annapolis legislators are currently looking at modifying this requirement such that an applicant would only need to provide the last 4 digits of his/her Social Security number. Makes me wonder why they even need to do that but at least they are looking into it.
P.S. Overall though, I like it that we’re talking about issuing fishing licenses as it means that spring can’t be too far off.