SSN Project: The Impact on Research

As of January 1, 2005, Social Security numbers (SSNs) will no longer be used in most Penn State processes to identify students and employees. In place of the SSN, the new PSU ID is to be used as identification. You are encouraged to review Policy AD19 - Use of Penn State Identification Number and Social Security Number http://guru.psu.edu/policies/AD19.html which has been created to govern the future use of SSNs.

This new policy will not only affect students and employees, but also research. Researchers will need to identify participants using a mechanism other than SSNs. If a SSN is required, there are provisions in the new policy governing how data containing SSNs are stored, including current electronic documents that contain SSNs.

Please review the document titled SSN Project and the Impact on Researchers from the SSN Project web site: http://ais.its.psu.edu/ssn/ssn_research.html for a list of provisions and more detail.