{"85351":{"#nid":"85351","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Becomes Georgia\u0027s First State University to Stop Using Social Security Number on Student IDs","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResponding to a rapid increase in identity theft nationwide, Georgia\u0027s public universities will soon stop using social security numbers as the primary way to track students.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nOn March 1, Georgia Tech will become the first state university to stop using the social security numbers of students, faculty and staff on ID cards and as the primary means of identifying them in campus databases. Tech\u0027s administration believes that having these numbers available in fewer places will help its people keep their identities more secure from potential theft.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nLast August, the Board of Regents issued a statement encouraging all University System of Georgia schools to use an alternate numbering system to identify students by 2005. Georgia Tech, which already had been working on a solution for two years, is taking the board\u0027s request one step further by including faculty and staff.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe threat of identity theft is real and increasing at a rapid rate. Identity theft tops the Federal Trade Commission\u0027s (FTC) list of consumer complaints for 2002, making up 43 percent of all complaints made to the FTC. In 2002 the commission recorded 161,819 complaints of identity theft.  That\u0027s compared to 86,198 complaints in 2001 and 31,117 in 2000.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIn Georgia, the FTC received 4,709 complaints of identity theft in 2002 and 2,592 complaints in 2001, an 81 percent increase.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBy removing social security numbers from Georgia Tech ID cards and many campus databases, Tech is part of a growing national movement to make these numbers more secure.  In January, democratic Senators Diane Feinstein of California and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, along with Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, introduced a bill that would prohibit the sale or display of the numbers to the general public.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe bill also calls for the removal of the numbers from government checks and driver\u0027s licenses as well as public documents on the Internet. In California, the legislature is considering two bills aimed at limiting the use of social security numbers. One would require colleges to stop printing the numbers on student ID\u0027s and other publicly available material.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nWhen the U.S. government first issued social security numbers in November 1936, the numbers were meant to keep track of people enrolled in the national retirement program, not as a national identification number.  But through the years, as various government agencies, businesses and universities began to use it to identify members and customers, that\u0027s just what it has become.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nNow, identity thieves are using the number as a master key to unlock confidential and sensitive information about a person\u0027s life.  By stealing a Social Security number, a thief can gain access to bank accounts, credit cards, driving records, tax and employment histories and other private information.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nDespite the dangers, its common practice for universities to use social security numbers to track students.  In a survey of 1,036 universities last year, the Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that 50 percent of respondents still use students\u0027 social security numbers as the primary means of identifying them.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0022One of the things that makes using the social security number as an ID so attractive for institutions is that almost every U.S. citizen has one,\u0022 said Lori Sundal, director of the Office of Information Technology\u0027s Enterprise Information Systems and head of the GT ID project.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0022But that advantage turns into a weakness when you have an institution like Georgia Tech that hosts so many international students, who may not have social security numbers,\u0022 Sundal said.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nTo replace social security numbers, Tech has created the gtID#, a unique number that will be used to identify employees and students in most major campus databases.  But that doesn\u0027t mean Tech will stop collecting social security numbers altogether.  Certain services, like payroll and student financial aid, will still require the Institute to collect the numbers.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBut limiting their use to these activities will make these numbers more secure and reduce the opportunities for identity thieves to get their hands on them.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Responding to a rapid increase in identity theft nationwide, Georgia\u0027s public universities will soon stop using social security numbers as the primary way to track students.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2003-03-11 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:10","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2003-02-28T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2003-02-28T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"85361":{"id":"85361","type":"image","title":"Georgia Tech Students","body":null,"created":"1449178110","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:28:30","changed":"1475894706","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:06"}},"media_ids":["85361"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}