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Social Security Numbers on Notices in the Online Retrieval System

September 30, 2013

SSA sends about 350 million notices to beneficiaries each year. Many of these notices include SSNs and are stored in the Agency's Online Rretrieval System (ORS). ORS allows SSA staff to review notices when beneficiaries contact SSA to discuss the notices they received. Through ORS, staff can view, reprint, send, and save notices addressed to beneficiaries.

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In this audit, we sought to determine whether the SSA could limit the display of SSNs on notices sent to beneficiaries that were maintained in ORS.