I recently received an email from a reader/friend in Pennsylvania. Here’s what he wrote me.
Tom, I just went to apply for my seasonal hunting license for myself and Grandson. Here in PA the game commission has revamped it’s system to an electronic data base. Your SSN is what the system stores for correlating information. I was told, some years back when this SSN requirement was added as a requirement to purchase a hunting license that the information would be used to track down Dead Beat Dads. Yet this year my 13 year old had to supply his SSN or he could not get a hunting license. The first I heard about this was yesterday. It appears as though the SYSTEM is gathering information on potential gun ownership by the back door! Cause the 13 YO is not a Dead Beat Dad. Are other States imposing this stipulation. Or just Eddie Rendell’s Commonwealth?
From the Pennsylvania Game Commission website, we find this information:
Customer Identification Number (CID): If you already have purchased a hunting or fishing license through PALS, you were assigned a CID number which was printed on your license. Please use this number when applying for a license through PALS since this will identify you in the database and speed the license issuance process. If you have never purchased a license through PALS, you will need to provide your social security number when applying. This is a one-time only requirement, and will not be needed again unless you don’t have or can’t remember your CID.
The problem appears to be that in order to get that “Customer Identification Number” you have to initially provide your Social Security Number as part of the process. Once that is completed, in subsequent applications for a license, you need only provide the CID.
Is this a necessary step in obtaining a game license? Do other states do this? Please pitch in here so we can get an idea if this is commonplace or something new that is starting.
I checked into Maine’s requirements. Maine’s online application process appears similar to Pennsylvania’s except that I do not believe you have to provide a SSN, only personal information such as date of birth, address, etc. Once you have obtained a license one time in Maine, you can use the MOSES ID# you get first time to obtain additional licenses and permits.
It would seem obvious that the state could track your personal information to get what they wanted should they be looking for guns, as the reader might be suggesting. Giving a SSN for a license application would probably make their job easier if this is what they were after.
So tell us what your thoughts are. Do you agree that the state should have your SSN to get a license? Does your state now do this? Is this a backdoor invasion of privacy?
Tom Remington
