From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!alice!rabbit!ark
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Title: Re: FAA violations of the Privacy Act
Article-I.D.: rabbit.1026
Posted: Thu Jan  6 11:54:45 1983
Received: Fri Jan  7 03:49:22 1983
References: hou5f.176

When I got my instrument ticket, I decided I didn't want my SSN used
anymore.  I had been naive enough to supply it the first time around.
After I passed, I told the examiner that I didn't want my SSN used.
She said: "fine; where it says 'certificate number' I will just write
PENDING, and they will assign a new number and purge your SSN from their
files."  She did, and they did.

I can see one small advantage to using your SSN as a license number:
if you lose it, it's easier to remember the number when sending for
a duplicate.