LETTER: Don’t ask for my SS number

Editor,

After finishing my last final, fall semester, I proceeded to the USU Bookstore textbook buyback in the Taggart Student Center. To my surprise, the buyer asked for my social security number. I protested, saying that I didn’t feel comfortable giving out that information. The buyer informed me that the number was necessary in order to track the sale of stolen books.

The Statesman has published various articles concerning the danger of identity theft. I feel it is wrong for the university bookstore to sponsor a textbook buyback that requires students to give their social security numbers aloud in a busy TSC hallway and then confirm it as the buyer repeats it. Anyone in line to sell books or passing by could collect a generous amount of identity information as a result of the university bookstore’s lack of confidentiality.

I suggest the university bookstore find a more confidential way to track stolen textbooks, if that is an important issue on campus. Students need not provide their social security numbers in order to sell books they no longer need.

Richard Cram