Many people are interested in finding other people's social security numbers. Anyway, it is illegal to search for ssn's in order to use them for any purpose other than defined by law, and you can't do that unless you have authorization from a court, government agency etc. where you work as employee or agent. This what a private individual may be sued for in a court, if done. In part, it is prohibited to publish on the Internet the social security numbers you unintentionally may have got a hold of while surfing on the Internet.

Some public records still containing full or partial social security numbers are:

• Mortgage records


• Real property transfer records


• Real or personal property lien records


• Real property ownership records


• Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings


• Federal or state tax liens


• Records related to criminal proceedings (e.g., pleadings, filings, rulings)


• Records related to civil proceedings


• Records of judgments


• Records of orders


• public criminal records



• Probate, estate, or inheritance records


• Traffic records


• Child support or custody records


• Military Discharge Records


• Other

Normally social security numbers are being redacted or truncated (shortened to display fewer digits) before the records are open for public access.

Many states, like Indiana, have progressive laws protecting even against the governmental use of Social Security Numbers. Still, just a few years ago, before the stricter measures were taken, many Social Security Numbers kept appearing on Sex Offend Registry websites and websites of Universities, thus provoking identity theft related crimes and other illegitimate uses of Social Security Numbers.

The situation at some moment took such a serious turn that many states, such as Arizona, Colorado, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Washington, and West Virginia, adopted special laws banning public universities and colleges from using SSNs as student IDs.