This 1 1/2 day workshop starts at 8:30am and will be Webcast. The agenda of topics and speakers from government and commerce, and professional and advocacy groups, is prominently sprinkled with privacy activists who take absolutist positions against access by private investigators to credit bureau and government records that contain Social Security numbers. However, there are 338 comments submitted by the public, many of them are accounts by private investigators of the critical use of Social Security numbers to solve crimes, find people, break fraud rings and verify employment backgrounds.

Robert Townsend of the National Association of Legal Investigators is on the 1:45pm panel on Monday.

On December 10 and 11, 2007, the Federal Trade Commission will host a public workshop, “Security in Numbers: SSNs and ID Theft,” to explore the uses of Social Security numbers in the private sector and the role of SSNs in identity theft. This workshop continues the work of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force, and, in particular, its recommendation to explore ways to reduce unnecessary uses of the SSN. The workshop will provide a forum for public-sector, private-sector, and consumer representatives to discuss the various uses of SSNs by the private sector, the necessity of those uses, alternatives available, the challenges faced by the private sector in moving away from using SSNs, and how SSNs are obtained and used by identity thieves. The workshop will be free and open to the public.

While you’re viewing the video, read through the November 2007 Federal Trade Commission document, Staff Summary of Comments and Information Received Regarding the Private Sector’s Use of Social Security Numbers.