The move came in response to US lawmakers urging online genealogy sites to stop posting SSNs because of fears that ID thieves could exploit the information, according to a report by Scripps Howard News Service.
A spokeswoman for Ancestry.com told the news service that “there was some sensitivity” about the company policy of releasing the numbers. That led to a “purposeful decision” not to post the numbers for those who have died in the last 10 years.
Another genealogy website, Genealogybank.com, said that it had also decided to stop posting SSNs, according to the report.
In a Dec. 1 letter, four Senate Democrats – Bill Nelson of Florida, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Richard Durbin of Illinois – wrote to officials at five major ancestry websites, urging them to remove the SSNs.
“Your website – because it lists decedents’ entire social security numbers – could be used by identity thieves to perpetrate their crimes. We implore you to consider the unintended consequences of making social security numbers available to anyone who accesses your website”, the senators said in the letter quoted by the news service.