Hot on the heals of my article yesterday titled, Social Security Death Index (SSDI) no longer available to the public about the denial of access to SSDI, I’m passing along worthwhile commentary published on Dick Eastman’s, Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, Genealogists are Losing Access to SSDI, Mostly Due to Misinformation, detailing a very interesting point of view regarding this loss of access to an important resource.
There’s also a link within the post to an article by Megan Smolenyak, Are We Going to Lose the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)? It’s an aspect of the situation that I didn’t think of and our lawmakers might want to consider this opinion:
“In the past two years, I have been writing about the misplaced threats to one of genealogists’ major resources of information: the Social Security Death Index, or SSDI. For background information, see my earlier articles:Commentary About Social Security Numbers in the SSDI at http://goo.gl/AmRmW, Another Bogus Report Concerning one Cause of Identity Theft at http://goo.gl/RdHQI, andThe Easy Way to Commit Identity Theft at http://goo.gl/xEvK7.
This valuable resource performs several functions. For genealogists, it provides birth information about ancestors who died in the last third of the twentieth century or even in the twenty-first. For credit card companies, banks, credit reporting agencies, loan companies, and others, the listing of Social Security Numbers in the monthly updates provides valuable information that prevents identity theft. By publishing those numbers widely, the Social Security Administrations is saying, “Don’t give credit to anyone using one of these Social Security Numbers as it is attempted fraud!”
Now, mis-guided politicians, urged on by news media who obviously don’t understand the fraud prevention benefits of the SSDI, are attempting to block publishing and distribution of this valuable data. These people believe that blocking publication will reduce identity theft. However, a simple consideration of the facts will show the opposite to be true.
Please pass the word.“
Tags: archives, genealogy collection, history, important, loss of access, online, records, resource, ssdi
Thanks for passing this along. You always give credit to others and cite your sources and recommend others. I think the idea is good. Government took the easy way out just as they do with border control.
A good idea but don’t think it will fly. If they closed the borders instead of shutting down public viewing of death records for folks who use the records honestly.