Is it safe to share my full Social Security Number?

Shopify Discussion
1

Hello!

i do not feel comfortable giving out my social security number. It is one thing to give out the last four but the whole number seems a bit risky. I was wondering, what are my rights I get for providing my SSN? Who can access it? Where does it go? How is my name and SSN protected?

2

Hi there, @MindfulBabs !

Thank you for your post, these are definitely great questions to ask.

Shopify and Shopify Payments are required to collect tax information (such as an SSN) as part of our verification process to remain compliant with Know Your Customer laws and tax requirements. The security of your information is very important to us, and you can read about how we handle your information in our Privacy Policy and our Privacy Policy for Merchants. Additionally, we only contact merchants for this information through email and admin banners. You should only ever upload your information through the admin banners or through the external secure link provided by our Shopify Payments team.

I wanted to point out these statements from our privacy policy that can answer some of your questions:

  • We carefully analyze what types of information we need to provide our services, and we try to limit the information we collect to only what we really need. Where possible, we delete or anonymize this information when we no longer need it.
  • Our teams work tirelessly to protect your information, and to ensure the security and integrity of our platform. We also have independent auditors assess the security of our data storage and systems that process financial information. However, we all know that no method of transmission over the Internet, and method of electronic storage, can be 100% secure. This means we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information. You can find more information about our security measures here.

Please let me know if you still have questions about this! Thank you again for your post.