Because most authorities and businesses accept your Social Security number as official proof of your identity, it can be a very effective tool in the hands of identity thieves, unscrupulous criminals who steal and use your personal information to perpetrate fraud. With your Social Security number, an identity thief can appropriate your name and life history using it to acquire documents (such as drivers’ licenses and passports), open bank and credit accounts and even obtain a mortgage. Simply by getting his or her hands on your Social Security number, therefore, an identity thief could have the potential to damage your credit reputation and harm your financial well being.

By forcing states to include Social Security numbers on drivers’ licenses, the repealed law would have made Social Security numbers that much easier for criminals to obtain and use to perpetrate identity theft. The relative inaccessibility of Social Security numbers, as compared to other personal information such as name, address and even credit card numbers, has traditionally provided a small stopgap measure in the battle against identity theft.

By mandating that peoples’ driver’s licenses display their Social Security number, this law (aimed at curbing certain fraudulent practices in regards to illegal immigration) would have forced people to carry around, in their wallets, at all times, a single piece of identification that contained almost all of their personal information. This would have meant that, in stealing your wallet, thieves would have been able to take more than just your money and credit cards. They would have the information to rob you of your identity as well.

Fortunately, alert legislators in Congress, encouraged by pressure from public interest and state groups, recognized the potentially dangerous implications of enacting section 656(b) and overturned the act before it was ever enforced—a good start and, hopefully, a positive sign of things to come in the campaign to protect your privacy and safeguard your personal information.