Identity theft has become so common that someday we will all be someone else. In an attempt to make it a teeny bit more difficult for a few bad apples to prey on the rest of us, there has been a lot of effort to suppress Social Security numbers (SSNs) from computer systems, printed output, and more. Social Security numbers used to be so common that people routinely had them printed on their checks. In fact, my first driver's license number was my Social Security number.

Now this mainstay of record-keepers everywhere has been corrupted into a gateway for cyber-criminals to ruin your credit while purchasing jewelry and Thighmasters from QVC.

But consider the Social Security number's humble beginnings. The first SSNs were issued in 1935 as part of the New Deal to track Social Security accounts. They came into existence with little fanfare and no one realized how important they would become outside of the Social Security program.

In the 1950 movie Champagne for Caesar, Ronald Colman's character faced an all-or-nothing question in the ultimate radio quiz show: What is your Social Security number? and got it wrong unheard of in today's world.

Before 1986, most people didn t get a Social Security number until about age 14. I still have my original Social Security card, which bears my 14-year-old signature. My 12-year-old brother went to the Social Security office at the same time and our SSNs differ by 100.

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 required parents to list the SSNs of dependent children over the age of five, so that meant assigning SSNs at younger ages. By 1990, they had to be assigned by age one. Now they issue them at birth. We brought our two babies home from the hospital equipped with Social Security cards.

But the fact that SSNs are so universal has made them an easy way to identify people in the information age. Every payroll file, every statement, every printout was emblazoned with name and SSN.

Not anymore.

The Social Security number has become such a matter of un-Security that you re lucky if you can even get the last four digits. Curse you, identity thieves!