Social Security Numbers. Recently comcast requested my social security number when I signed up for cable service. I asked the sales person if this was absolutely required, and she assured me it was. This seems really, really bad. I did give it to her, but I called back today to speak with someone in customer service about it. I told her I do not want them to have my social security number. She said no problem, she claimed to remove it from my account, and asked me instead to choose a numeric PIN that they would instead use to identify me whenever I called in the future. Why isn't comcast forced to not ask for social security numbers in the first place? Just what are the laws for who can and can not require that you provide your social security number? For example, are all cell phone service providers allowed to require this? Here are some more links on this topic: cpsr.org, epic.org, privacyrights.org, Jamie Court... ¶5:09 PM; digg