Depending on when your SS Card was issued, it will have different text on the front. I have one of the old ones also that says "Not for Identification". But that language was later deleted from the card.
https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/ssnversions.htmlWhen I got my A&P license in 1975, the license number as issued by the FAA was your Soc Sec #. So.......for about 25 years, until the reg's changed, every logbook, squawk sheet, or work order I signed had my Soc Sec # followed by my signature. So....THOUSANDS of people have access to my # and signature. Later, you could get a new license with new number, which I did.
Some years ago when I got a job that required a security clearance, I gave all my documents, driver's license, birth certificate, resume, etc., to the security officer at the new job and she FAXed it to the company that does the clearance research. She hit the "SEND" button on the FAX machine, and then said, "Oops. Oh, crap." Or words to that effect. Seems she sent it to the wrong number. I said, "So...you just FAXed my ENTIRE IDENTITY to some unknown location?
?!?!?!?!?!?"
It ultimately didn't matter since a few years ago, the Chinese hacked the gov't and they got all of the data for all of the people with security clearances, anyway.
No one is safe. NO ONE.
The way we as a society SHOULD have fought the Soc Sec# as ID was to have just refused to provide it to anyone but the IRS or Soc Sec Administration. But those days are gone and it's too late now.