What is a social security number?  Social security number is a number that came into vogue in November 1936, and it was issued by the social security administration in November 1936. Such was its success that within three months a social security number was distributed to 25 million citizens of USA.

Up to 1986 social security number was issued only to the persons above 14 years of age. The objective of issuing a social security number was to track the income accruing to an individual and with the help of the social security number it was easy to track the income generated. This definition explains why to search people by social security number. At the root of initiation of process of social security number was to collect tax from the individuals who had started making income. With the amendment of American Tax Laws in 1986, even the individuals over 5 years old not having a social security number could be denied the benefit of being a dependent on a tax return. The threshold limit for issuing a social security number was brought down to 1 year subsequently in 1990 and it was altogether abolished. After its abolition altogether, parents have been applying for a social security number of their children after births. Now the government has facilitated the process and streamlined in such a manner that the social security number can be applied on the basis of the birth certificates issued by the hospitals.

The basic idea behind having a social security number was to monitor the account of the individuals within the overall spread of the social security program initiated by the government. That is why it a great tool for people search by social security number. Now the social security number has emerged as a source of identity of the individual and to a large extent the system of social security is fool proof. It happens in a very rare case that a social security number is duplicated or two individuals are having a same social security number.

Later the social security number helped to find people by social security number. Social security number is a one-point reference that can be linked with the record of the employees, their medical history, student records. Even the credit records are referenced to the social security numbers. The US military also uses the social security number to identify the personnel for Army and Air Force. The US army started taking the help of social security number since July 01 1969, Navy and Marine Corps put it into operation since January 01, 1972 while the Coast Guards started using it since October 01, 1974.