Social Security Numbers on Applications Forum

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HopefulSplitter0000

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Social Security Numbers on Applications

Post by HopefulSplitter0000 » Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:35 pm

I am ready to submit my Duke Law application; however, when I review the application, my social security number appears as "xxx-xx-xxxx". In other words, it appears as a series of x's.

I was under the impression that the last four digits of the social security number would be visible. Is this a mistaken assumption? LSAC has my SSN, and they even showed the last four digits while I completed the biological/demographic portions of the flexible application. It was only during the "review application" stage that this occurred.

I was planning to contact LSAC, but they are closed until Monday. I figured I would ask here first to see if anybody has any experience or knowledge related to this question.

Dipsychus

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Re: Social Security Numbers on Applications

Post by Dipsychus » Sun Oct 13, 2019 10:48 am

Has the issue resolved itself? It’s a pretty minor matter but I’d wait until Tuesday and call LSAC. These glitches seem to happen: on one particular application there was a tick mark next to Thai (race/ethnicity) — where on earth did that come from, since the bio/demo of the flex app has it right?

Goes to show the importance of reviewing each application minutely before pressing Send.

HopefulSplitter0000

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Re: Social Security Numbers on Applications

Post by HopefulSplitter0000 » Mon Oct 14, 2019 1:20 am

Dipsychus wrote:Has the issue resolved itself?
No, but I plan to call LSAC. Conventional wisdom dictates that I am still ahead of schedule for applying, so I am not concerned. I will update this post with the outcome once I get a response.

nixy

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Re: Social Security Numbers on Applications

Post by nixy » Mon Oct 14, 2019 10:19 am

I know that my work documents (pay stubs etc) show up online with the SSN scrubbed unless I actively choose to show it, so I would assume it's just a privacy thing.

The Lsat Airbender

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Re: Social Security Numbers on Applications

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Mon Oct 14, 2019 10:31 am

nixy wrote:I know that my work documents (pay stubs etc) show up online with the SSN scrubbed unless I actively choose to show it, so I would assume it's just a privacy thing.
Yeah, LSAC's recording it internally because it's a unique identifier that's hard to fake but law schools don't actually need to know your last 4 digits, and it's a security best practice nowadays to mask any PII that isn't strictly needed.

HopefulSplitter0000

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Re: Social Security Numbers on Applications

Post by HopefulSplitter0000 » Mon Oct 14, 2019 8:50 pm

The Lsat Airbender wrote:
nixy wrote:I know that my work documents (pay stubs etc) show up online with the SSN scrubbed unless I actively choose to show it, so I would assume it's just a privacy thing.
Yeah, LSAC's recording it internally because it's a unique identifier that's hard to fake but law schools don't actually need to know your last 4 digits, and it's a security best practice nowadays to mask any PII that isn't strictly needed.
Update: this is exactly what lsac said. The social security number is fully hidden during the preview for privacy and security reasons.

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