this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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61
Social Insecurity: Billions of Social Security Number and Passwords (www.upguard.com)
submitted 6 hours ago by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] treadful@lemmy.zip -3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

They get reused. Also:

About 52% of the records had unique SSNs

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

https://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html :

Q20: Are Social Security numbers reused after a person dies?

A: No. We do not reassign a Social Security number (SSN) after the number holder's death. Even though we have issued over 453 million SSNs so far, and we assign about 5 and one-half million new numbers a year, the current numbering system will provide us with enough new numbers for several generations into the future with no changes in the numbering system.

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 hours ago

Weird, I was quite confident in that memory. Thanks for the link.