Many SSNs have been compromised already. The jig is up. It was never supposed to be an identity system but organisations keep insisting on using it as one. Even if they aren’t literally publicly available and easily obtainable, they should be treated as such.

https://constella.ai/verifying-the-national-public-data-brea...

Unless you’ve been a hermit or homeless for the entirety of your life, just about anyone can get your SSN from Accurint or TLO for a few bucks.

Sure, in theory Accurint and TLO do KYC. In practice you can find tons of people on various crime forums offering those lookups for a few dollars a pop.