From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!eagle!mhtsa!alice!npoiv!hou5f!kfr Newsgroups: net.aviation Title: FAA violations of the Privacy Act Article-I.D.: hou5f.176 Posted: Thu Jan 6 10:11:41 1983 Received: Fri Jan 7 02:37:54 1983 The FAA's application for a flight test, as well as other FAA forms, request the Social Security Number (SSN) of the applicant. The Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits federal agencies from using the SSN unless specifically granted permission by statute. The FAA's use of the SSN is not so covered, and the FAA's use is illegal!. The Privacy Act (P.L. 93-579) also requires any agency "which requests an individual to disclose his social security account number shall inform that individual whether that disclosure is mandatory or voluntary, by what statutory or other authority such number is solicited, and what uses will be made of it." The FAA does not comply with this either. I am in possession of a letter from the FAA in Washington that says that an applicant does not have to disclose their SSN, and in that case the FAA will assign their own ID number. So far this has not helped much on the local (New Jersey) level. Has anyone else had any experience with this issue?