The SS-5 may contain additional genealogical data, such as birthplace, father's name, and mother's full maiden name or that information may be blacked out.
A government audit revealed that the Social Security Administration had incorrectly listed 23,000 people as dead in a two-year period.
These people sometimes faced difficulties in convincing government agencies that they were actually alive; a 2008 story in the Nashville area focused on a woman who was incorrectly flagged as dead in the Social Security computers in 2000 and had difficulties, such as having health insurance canceled and electronically filed tax returns rejected.
This story also noted that such people could be highly vulnerable to identity theft because of the release of their Social Security numbers.
[5] In November 2011, due to privacy and identity theft concerns, the Social Security Administration redacted and no longer included death data derived from State sources.