Yahoo! Requires SSN?

wesmills writes "In case you haven't heard, Yahoo! Bills is the newest way to pay your bills online. Considering my bank's online abilities are somewhat limited, I decided to look at Yahoo!'s offering. On their signup page, you must enter the requisite name, address, phone number, bank routing information...and SSN? My question was, and is, why does Yahoo! need my SSN to mail checks for me?" Click below for more...

"Would it be possible, as has been discussed on Slashdot before to not enter a number (I entered all zeroes), or to bypass this restriction? I posed that question, to their feedback form, and here's what I got back:

To: [e-mail]
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Feedback Form Inquiry

Unfortunately, there is no way to bypass the SSN requirement.

Thank you,
Yahoo! Support

OK, so what's the deal here, and are there any ways to get companies like Yahoo! and so forth to lighten up? It really galls me to see them requesting information that they (should) know they don't need! Never have I needed my SSN to mail a check to my VISA company. Heck, they don't care if my sister or mother does it. So, what's your take on this? "

My take is pretty simple. Yahoo does not need your SSN to pay bills for you (electronic funds transfers can be done solely with your account number and bank's routing number). Yahoo probably wants your SSN so that they can compare your online profile with your credit history, then give your address to targeted advertisers, who will send you junk mail to your home address, depending on what kind of bills you are paying through Yahoo's service. Being able to link your bill-paying to a specific SSN should allow much higher rates when advertising to you. Yahoo has no legal inhibitions against disclosing your SSN to anyone it feels like, "privacy policy" or no "privacy policy", so if you don't want your SSN being passed around the internet, don't give it out. -- michael

SSN == Financal tracking (fraud, BAD CHECKS, etc!)

[Seth Finkelstein]

Yahoo does not need your SSN to pay bills for you ...

Well, technically, it doesn't NEED it, but not having it is going to exclude them from interconnecting to the whole financial tracking structure and bad-check tracing databases. That would be an absolutely insane thing to do when starting up any sort money-handling organization (cypherpunk black-market cryptoanarchists excepted). Forget targeting advertising, this is money flow we're talking about.

You don't put an SSN on a check to a credit-card company because the bank has your SSN and so does the credit-card company. The exchange is between two corporations both of which already know your SSN. In this case, Yahoo is being asked to act as an financial intermediary, and almost any such organization will want your SSN.

Which is not to say they won't use it for lots of other stuff, but there's MUCH more going on than advertising.

Reference:

Many banks send the names, addresses, and SSNs of people whose accounts have been closed for cause to a company called ChexSystem. ChexSystem keeps a database of people whose accounts have been terminated for fraud or chronic insufficient funds in the past 5 years.

SSN FAQ: Private requests for your SSN [cpsr.org]

- The Boston Lunatic

Well, we know what to do...

[ford42]

I'm off to Yahoo Bills right now to send them a nice little email (remember, folks, flaming never works) to let them know that I and many others like me will never use their service as long as the SSN requirement stands.

Some organisations have a legal need to the SSN, like your bank. If Yahoo is just acting as a check-printer, then they do not need the SSN.

I wish that all online privacy concerns were this easy to do something about...

Re:SSN == Financal tracking (fraud, BAD CHECKS, et

[wesmills]

If by check tracking database, you mean ChexSystems (see here [tripod.com]), then they cannot have my SSN. My financial life has been ruined once by Chex, and it won't be again.

Also, there is absolutely nothing to prevent them from drafting a check against my account with my authorization and sending it to the payor, or drafting said check, depositing it and then doing an ACH transfer to the payor. OR, even ACHing the money out of my account and the into the payor's. My bank requires only the routing number and bank account number to do ACH transfers.

If financial interconnections required SSNs, why doesn't IEscrow [iescrow.com] require it? I routinely have my escrow checks deposited directly into my checking account, and all they needed was the routing/account number.

Re:SSN == Financal tracking (fraud, BAD CHECKS, et

[Seth Finkelstein]

I didn't say financial interconnections required SSNs, I said there was a financial tracking structure (including anti-fraud) which uses SSNs. And that's likely the big reason Yahoo wants your SSN even if they don't absolutely, positively, need to have it.

I-escrow is charging a very hefty fee [iescrow.com], and so presumably incorporating the fraud-risk in that fee. Note they are also geared much more to low-level, plenty of time to clear, transactions than high-volume, high-speed financial payments.

- The Boston Lunatic