That's terrible. I don't understand why governments do that.

Oh it's much worse than just the SSNs. Thankfully you can't do much with SSNs alone, though you totally can with some social engineering, or offical looking documents. There are people that have legally died because death certificates have been filed on them, from non-existing doctors. Legally died as in the person is very much still alive. That kind of thing is a fucking mess to fix.

The thing is, if you knew my name, or my address and age, you'd be able to find out crazy details about me.

• My birth date
• My full name
• My social security number
• Which apartment I live in
• Directions my apartment from the building entrance
• How large my apartment is
• How many rooms it has
• When I moved in
• My criminal record
• Which schools I've attended
• Where I've worked
• What I've studied
• Who my current employer is
• If I have a spouse, if so who they are and all of this info about them
• My yearly income
• The average income of the people in my area
• All of this information about everyone in my building
• If I own any vehicles
• If so what model, make, and lit. everything about it (purchase date, approx value, when it was last serviced, odometer settings)
• Which animals I have registered on my name
• Their name, sex, breed, and age

Like it's extensive and there are websites that are built to collate all this information under one roof, then have people pay to access parts of it. You can access this info through official means for free but it won't be neatly presented in a singular packet. I've also left out a lot of stuff, like my company ownership/board member status, if I've been politically engaged, etc. The list was getting too long.