"The SSN is about the worst choice," said Titus, who hosts a podcast on privacy. "It is a broken system."
He surveyed the "U.S. News and World Report's Top 127 Colleges & Universities" to find out how many of GW's peer institutions use SSNs on transcripts. Only 26 percent of the universities surveyed required the number on the document and 11 percent made SSNs optional, according to Titus' study.
The University phased out Social Security numbers from the library and GWeb portal systems in Fall 2006. The University still uses the numbers in the Banner System for financial aid, payroll and tax-reporting purposes, in addition to transcripts and other official documents. Other databases and documents use the GWid number as the primary identifier.
"We have many students who share the same name, therefore it is critical that some unique identifier be included on every transcript produced," Amundson said. "When the SSN was used as the student ID, it was the only identifier we had available."
Nassirian said there is other personal information on transcripts that can lead to identity theft.
"Transcripts are loaded with private info," Nassirian said. "The fact is many other data elements are private and would facilitate identity theft."
Titus said stopping identity theft from transcripts is impossible without SSN removal.
He said, "there is no silver bullet to preventing identity theft except living on a mountain in Tibet."
He surveyed the "U.S. News and World Report's Top 127 Colleges & Universities" to find out how many of GW's peer institutions use SSNs on transcripts. Only 26 percent of the universities surveyed required the number on the document and 11 percent made SSNs optional, according to Titus' study.
The University phased out Social Security numbers from the library and GWeb portal systems in Fall 2006. The University still uses the numbers in the Banner System for financial aid, payroll and tax-reporting purposes, in addition to transcripts and other official documents. Other databases and documents use the GWid number as the primary identifier.
"We have many students who share the same name, therefore it is critical that some unique identifier be included on every transcript produced," Amundson said. "When the SSN was used as the student ID, it was the only identifier we had available."
Nassirian said there is other personal information on transcripts that can lead to identity theft.
"Transcripts are loaded with private info," Nassirian said. "The fact is many other data elements are private and would facilitate identity theft."
Titus said stopping identity theft from transcripts is impossible without SSN removal.
He said, "there is no silver bullet to preventing identity theft except living on a mountain in Tibet."
