Originally Posted by
albrt
Many people on this site are old enough to remember that social security cards said "“For Social Security and Tax Purposes -- Not For Identification" because people back then did not want centralized control over their ID and financial affairs.
That statement is off-topic, of course, but: the "Not For Identification" wording was more likely a legal disclaimer intended to absolve the Federal government of responsibility if you found yourself defrauded as a result of providing your SSN to a crook as a means of identification.
The disclaimer was removed from the card (in 1972, I just read; it had first appeared there in 1946) because an overwhelming number of non-governmental businesses and agencies had come to use it as a
de facto means of identification over the years.