Is it OK to upload a death certificate that has a social security number visible?
I have a death certificate of my grandmother. She died just a year ago. I would like to upload the certificate of death as a source. But I realized that her social security number is there and would be visible for others to see...
Is it OK to upload a document that has the social security number of the deceased individual?
Thank you so much!
Best Answer
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In theory, there is no right to (or need for) privacy after death. Back when the full Social Security Death Index was made available in a timely fashion, this was true in practice, too, because anyone could look up a Social Security number in it and thus immediately recognize identity theft involving deceased people.
They decided a few years ago to delay publishing the death index, supposedly as a privacy or security measure, but the actual result of the move is the exact opposite of the one desired: it allows crooks to continue using a dead person's identity with impunity, because nobody can check that the person is actually deceased. This means that now we do need to protect the SSNs of our deceased loved ones, pretty much indefinitely, because even when the index is published, it no longer includes the number.
So as the mod said, blur or block out the number on the certificate before posting it online.
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Answers
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I would blank it out by using a piece of paper over the number only.
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