Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Prohibition of the display, sale, or purchase of Social Security numbers. 
Sec. 4. Application of prohibition of the display, sale, or purchase of Social Se-
curity numbers to public records. 
Sec. 5. Rulemaking authority of the Attorney General. 
Sec. 6. Treatment of Social Security numbers on government documents. 
Sec. 7. Limits on personal disclosure of a Social Security number for consumer 
transactions. 
Sec. 8. Extension of civil monetary penalties for misuse of a Social Security 
number. 
Sec. 9. Criminal penalties for the misuse of a Social Security number. 
Sec. 10. Civil actions and civil penalties. 
Sec. 11. Federal injunctive authority. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The inappropriate display, sale, or purchase 
of Social Security numbers has contributed to a 
growing range of illegal activities, including fraud, 
identity theft, and, in some cases, stalking and other 
violent crimes. 
(2) While financial institutions, health care pro-
viders, and other entities have often used Social Se-
curity numbers to confirm the identity of an indi-
vidual, the general display to the public, sale, or pur-
chase of these numbers has been used to commit 
crimes, and also can result in serious invasions of in-
dividual privacy. 
(3) The Federal Government requires virtually 
every individual in the United States to obtain and 
maintain a Social Security number in order to pay 
taxes, to qualify for Social Security benefits, or to 
seek employment. An unintended consequence of 
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these requirements is that Social Security numbers 
have become one of the tools that can be used to fa-
cilitate crime, fraud, and invasions of the privacy of 
the individuals to whom the numbers are assigned. 
Because the Federal Government created and main-
tains this system, and because the Federal Govern-
ment does not permit individuals to exempt them-
selves from those requirements, it is appropriate for 
the Federal Government to take steps to stem the 
abuse of Social Security numbers. 
(4) The display, sale, or purchase of Social Se-
curity numbers in no way facilitates uninhibited, ro-
bust, and wide-open public debate, and restrictions 
on such display, sale, or purchase would not affect 
public debate. 
(5) No one should seek to profit from the dis-
play, sale, or purchase of Social Security numbers in 
circumstances that create a substantial risk of phys-
ical, emotional, or financial harm to the individuals 
to whom those numbers are assigned. 
(6) Consequently, this Act provides each indi-
vidual that has been assigned a Social Security num-
ber some degree of protection from the display, sale, 
and purchase of that number in any circumstance 
that might facilitate unlawful conduct. 
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SEC. 3. PROHIBITION OF THE DISPLAY, SALE, OR PUR-
CHASE OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS. 
(a) PROHIBITION.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 18, 
United States Code, is amended by inserting after 
section 1028A the following: 
‘‘§ 1028B. Prohibition of the display, sale, or purchase 
of Social Security numbers 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) DISPLAY.—The term ‘display’ means to in-
tentionally communicate or otherwise make available 
(on the Internet or in any other manner) to the gen-
eral public an individual’s Social Security number. 
‘‘(2) PERSON.—The term ‘person’ means any 
individual, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, co-
operative, association, or any other entity. 
‘‘(3) PURCHASE.—The term ‘purchase’ means 
providing directly or indirectly, anything of value in 
exchange for a Social Security number. 
‘‘(4) SALE.—The term ‘sale’ means obtaining, 
directly or indirectly, anything of value in exchange 
for a Social Security number. 
‘‘(5) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means any 
State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 
Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the 
United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American 
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Samoa, and any territory or possession of the 
United States. 
‘‘(b) LIMITATION ON DISPLAY.—Except as provided 
in section 1028C, no person may display any individual’s 
Social Security number to the general public without the 
affirmatively expressed consent of the individual. 
‘‘(c) LIMITATION ON SALE OR PURCHASE.—Except 
as otherwise provided in this section, no person may sell 
or purchase any individual’s Social Security number with-
out the affirmatively expressed consent of the individual. 
‘‘(d) PREREQUISITES FOR CONSENT.—In order for 
consent to exist under subsection (b) or (c), the person 
displaying or seeking to display, selling or attempting to 
sell, or purchasing or attempting to purchase, an individ-
ual’s Social Security number shall— 
‘‘(1) inform the individual of the general pur-
pose for which the number will be used, the types of 
persons to whom the number may be available, and 
the scope of transactions permitted by the consent; 
and 
‘‘(2) obtain the affirmatively expressed consent 
(electronically or in writing) of the individual. 
‘‘(e) EXCEPTIONS.—Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to prohibit or limit the display, sale, or purchase 
of a Social Security number— 
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‘‘(1) required, authorized, or excepted under 
any Federal law; 
‘‘(2) for a public health purpose, including the 
protection of the health or safety of an individual in 
an emergency situation; 
‘‘(3) for a national security purpose; 
‘‘(4) for a law enforcement purpose, including 
the investigation of fraud and the enforcement of a 
child support obligation; 
‘‘(5) if the display, sale, or purchase of the 
number is for a use occurring as a result of an inter-
action between businesses, governments, or business 
and government (regardless of which entity initiates 
the interaction), including, but not limited to— 
‘‘(A) the prevention of fraud (including 
fraud in protecting an employee’s right to em-
ployment benefits); 
‘‘(B) the facilitation of credit checks or the 
facilitation of background checks of employees, 
prospective employees, or volunteers; 
‘‘(C) the retrieval of other information 
from other businesses, commercial enterprises, 
government entities, or private nonprofit orga-
nizations; or 
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‘‘(D) when the transmission of the number 
is incidental to, and in the course of, the sale, 
lease, franchising, or merger of all, or a portion 
of, a business; 
‘‘(6) if the transfer of such a number is part of 
a data matching program involving a Federal, State, 
or local agency; or 
‘‘(7) if such number is required to be submitted 
as part of the process for applying for any type of 
Federal, State, or local government benefit or pro-
gram; 
except that, nothing in this subsection shall be construed 
as permitting a professional or commercial user to display 
or sell a Social Security number to the general public. 
‘‘(f) LIMITATION.—Nothing in this section shall pro-
hibit or limit the display, sale, or purchase of Social Secu-
rity numbers as permitted under title V of the Gramm- 
Leach-Bliley Act, or for the purpose of affiliate sharing 
as permitted under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, except 
that no entity regulated under such Acts may make Social 
Security numbers available to the general public, as may 
be determined by the appropriate regulators under such 
Acts. For purposes of this subsection, the general public 
shall not include affiliates or unaffiliated third-party busi-
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ness entities as may be defined by the appropriate regu-
lators.’’. 
(2) CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—The chapter 
analysis for chapter 47 of title 18, United States 
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating 
to section 1028 the following: 
‘‘1028B. Prohibition of the display, sale, or purchase of Social Security num-
bers.’’. 
(b) STUDY; REPORT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General shall 
conduct a study and prepare a report on all of the 
uses of Social Security numbers permitted, required, 
authorized, or excepted under any Federal law. The 
report shall include a detailed description of the uses 
allowed as of the date of enactment of this Act, the 
impact of such uses on privacy and data security, 
and shall evaluate whether such uses should be con-
tinued or discontinued by appropriate legislative ac-
tion. 
(2) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General 
shall report to Congress findings under this sub-
section. The report shall include such recommenda-
tions for legislation based on criteria the Attorney 
General determines to be appropriate. 
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(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall take effect on the date that is 30 days 
after the date on which the final regulations promulgated 
under section 5 are published in the Federal Register. 
SEC. 4. APPLICATION OF PROHIBITION OF THE DISPLAY, 
SALE, OR PURCHASE OF SOCIAL SECURITY 
NUMBERS TO PUBLIC RECORDS. 
(a) PUBLIC RECORDS EXCEPTION.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 18, 
United States Code (as amended by section 3(a)(1)), 
is amended by inserting after section 1028B the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘§ 1028C. Display, sale, or purchase of public records 
containing Social Security numbers 
‘‘(a) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘public 
record’ means any governmental record that is made avail-
able to the general public. 
‘‘(b) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in sub-
sections (c), (d), and (e), section 1028B shall not apply 
to a public record. 
‘‘(c) PUBLIC RECORDS ON THE INTERNET OR IN AN 
ELECTRONIC MEDIUM.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1028B shall apply 
to any public record first posted onto the Internet 
or provided in an electronic medium by, or on behalf 
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of a government entity after the date of enactment 
of this section, except as limited by the Attorney 
General in accordance with paragraph (2). 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR GOVERNMENT ENTITIES 
ALREADY PLACING PUBLIC RECORDS ON THE INTER-
NET OR IN ELECTRONIC FORM.—Not later than 60 
days after the date of enactment of this section, the 
Attorney General shall issue regulations regarding 
the applicability of section 1028B to any record of 
a category of public records first posted onto the 
Internet or provided in an electronic medium by, or 
on behalf of a government entity prior to the date 
of enactment of this section. The regulations will de-
termine which individual records within categories of 
records of these government entities, if any, may 
continue to be posted on the Internet or in electronic 
form after the effective date of this section. In pro-
mulgating these regulations, the Attorney General 
may include in the regulations a set of procedures 
for implementing the regulations and shall consider 
the following: 
‘‘(A) The cost and availability of tech-
nology available to a governmental entity to re-
dact Social Security numbers from public 
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records first provided in electronic form after 
the effective date of this section. 
‘‘(B) The cost or burden to the general 
public, businesses, commercial enterprises, non- 
profit organizations, and to Federal, State, and 
local governments of complying with section 
1028B with respect to such records. 
‘‘(C) The benefit to the general public, 
businesses, commercial enterprises, non-profit 
organizations, and to Federal, State, and local 
governments if the Attorney General were to 
determine that section 1028B should apply to 
such records. 
Nothing in the regulation shall permit a public enti-
ty to post a category of public records on the Inter-
net or in electronic form after the effective date of 
this section if such category had not been placed on 
the Internet or in electronic form prior to such effec-
tive date. 
‘‘(d) HARVESTED SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS.— 
Section 1028B shall apply to any public record of a gov-
ernment entity which contains Social Security numbers ex-
tracted from other public records for the purpose of dis-
playing or selling such numbers to the general public. 
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‘‘(e) ATTORNEY GENERAL RULEMAKING ON PAPER 
RECORDS.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days 
after the date of enactment of this section, the At-
torney General shall determine the feasibility and 
advisability of applying section 1028B to the records 
listed in paragraph (2) when they appear on paper 
or on another nonelectronic medium. If the Attorney 
General deems it appropriate, the Attorney General 
may issue regulations applying section 1028B to 
such records. 
‘‘(2) LIST
OF
PAPER
AND
OTHER
NONELEC-
TRONIC RECORDS.—The records listed in this para-
graph are as follows: 
‘‘(A) Professional or occupational licenses. 
‘‘(B) Marriage licenses. 
‘‘(C) Birth certificates. 
‘‘(D) Death certificates. 
‘‘(E) Other short public documents that 
display a Social Security number in a routine 
and consistent manner on the face of the docu-
ment. 
‘‘(3) CRITERIA FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL RE-
VIEW.—In determining whether section 1028B 
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