OPM Halts Plans to Restrict SSN Use

The Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday announced it was withdrawing plans to create a consistent policy for restricting the use of federal employees' Social Security numbers by agencies to help combat fraud and identity theft.

The announcement, published in the Federal Register, follows up on a notice published in January 2008 that sought public comment on how to restrict the use and conceal the Social Security numbers in employee records and human resources information systems. But OPM said that it was halting those plans, largely due to concern about the necessity to replace Social Security numbers with an alternate employee identifier prior to implementing the proposed rules. Implementing the rule would be impractical, OPM said, largely because systems and processes, including electronic recruitment systems, payment of various federal benefits, determinations for security clearances, taxpayer identification and union dues withholding through payroll reduction, all rely on the use of Social Security numbers as a primary identifier.