“Comcast: “The Patriot Act” Mandates We Need Your SSN” from consumer affairs blog The Consumerist tells the story of Ryan, a person who was refused a new account by a Comcast representative because he would not disclose his social security number. In reality, you are not required to supply your social security number in order to open a new account with a cable/internet provider.
Ryan attempted to open a new account with Comcast by speaking with a customer support representative online through the company’s live chat service. The rep. wasted no time in requesting the potential customer’s social security number — a request that was refused. The representative proceeded to cite the Patriot Act, deny the new account, direct Ryan to Comcast’s legal department, and then sign off before providing contact information for said legal department.
Who’s right?
This customer support representative was incorrect to insist that the Patriot Act requires “media communications companies” supplying Internet connectivity to collect customers’ social security numbers. Commenters on the Consumerist article were quick to refute the Comcast representative’s claims. Commenter johnnya2 quoted a bit of information from the Social Security Administration regarding who is allowed to request your SSN (see also).
Comcast maintains a Twitter account in order to participate in online discussions and respond to inquiries regarding their business. Frank Eliason — the Comcast employee behind the Twitter account — responded to a number of people who asked him about the situation (here, here, and here, to cite a few). According to @comcastcares, the live chat representative’s information was inaccurate and a social security number is indeed not required in order to open an account. He suggests that the rep. may have previously worked in financial services, were the Patriot Act does require customers to disclose such information.
The bottom line
As of this writing, you are not required to give out your social security number in order to sign up for Cable or Internet service. If a customer service representative insists otherwise, ask to speak with a manager. Your SSN is a very important number… never give it out unless you absolutely must. Furthermore, you should never trust someone who treats your privacy with such disregard, as did the representative at the heart of this Consumerist story.
More tips for protecting your privacy
Another positive outcome from this story is that the events which transpired give us great examples of red flags to look for when presented with a privacy-threatening situation. The following observations made it absolutely clear that Ryan was presented with a dangerous situation, and the person on the other end of the live chat could not be trusted with his personal information:
- The representative was insistent upon factually incorrect information.
- The representative was poorly trained with regard to the information with which they were supposedly dealing.
- The representative was dismissive of a potential customer’s perfectly valid privacy concerns.
- The representative exhibited poor written communication skills.
- The representative presented their assumptions regarding Comcast’s security infrastructure as fact (or, at best, was paraphrasing and unwittingly glossed over the details).
Seeing these behaviors, I would not trust this person with my personal information.
