Transparency Document Release Part 1

Social Security Number Validation

In latter stages of building Mass Address, we ran into issues working with the Federal Government. (Imagine That) This document shows the red tape and costs associated with building solutions for the American people.

16 Nov 2020, 1013hrs

Good Day,

        We are building a decentralized Identity platform for America. We need the ability to validate SSN's against your database. We only need to pass 2 pieces of information to your database; a persons last name and their full social security number. We only need a True or False, YES or NO response.  The SSN database needs to be able to respond in real time. We will be processing about 55,000 requests a day.

Thank you for your time

Edward W. Hood

Founder

16 Nov 2020, 1257hrs

Thank you for your interest in the Consent Based Social Security Number Verification (CBSV) program.  CBSV is typically used by companies that provide banking and mortgage services, process credit checks, provide background checks, satisfy licensing requirements, etc.  Fees include a one-time (non-refundable) initial enrollment fee of $5,000, and a fee per-SSN verification transaction.  The transaction fee is presently $1.00 per verification request.  The CBSV transaction fee can change at any time.  A company must submit an advance payment to cover their estimated usage for the entire fiscal year.  At the end of the fiscal year, we refund any un-used balance left in the company’s account.  Each fiscal year companies submit a new deposit based on the number of verifications they plan to submit in a given year.

SSA will verify whether a name, date of birth, and Social Security Number (SSN) combination match the data in SSA’s records for registered businesses and agencies as long as they first obtain written consent of the number holder.  The authorizing signature must be a written (pen and ink) signature.  If the name, DOB and number submitted match our records, but our records also indicate that the holder of this number is deceased, we will also issue a death alert. CBSV does not verify an individual’s identity.  The enrollment and registration process will take approximately 5-6 weeks from the date we received your enrollment fee to the time we send out forms for your signature.  More detailed information about CBSV may be found at http://www.ssa.gov/cbsv/.  To enroll complete the SSA-200 form and email it back to XXX.XXXX@XXX.XXX.

Thank you,

Rhonda D. Hooks, Program Analyst

SSA, ORDP, ODEPPIN,ODXIA

State and Private Industry Agreements Branch

410-597-1733

3 Mar 2021, 2200hrs

Ma'am,

        Is there any way we can negotiate a better rate? 55,000 Americans will be authenticated every day using our app.  The annual volume will exceed 35 million.  $1.00 per authentication is literally 20% of what we charge people to manage their identity.  20% is a fairly large tax.

Edward W. Hood

Founder

4 Mar 2021 0558hrs

The transaction fee is non-negotiable and is standard for all users.  Please visit our website and review the information on eCBSV.  That service may better suit your needs. https://www.ssa.gov/dataexchange/eCBSV/

Rhonda D. Hooks, Program Analyst

SSA, ORDP, ODEPPIN,ODXIA

State and Private Industry Agreements Branch

( 410-597-1733

12 April 2021, 2115hrs

To whom it may concern,

          How are we supposed to obtain wet signatures for 55,000 citizens a day? We can implement a digital signature option but we have no idea how to obtain 55,000 signatures a day?  Please advise.

Edward W. Hood

Founder

19Apr2021, 1442hrs

Good Day,

       We currently building a private change of address service for US Citizens. This platform runs on decentralized identity. It is 100% private end to end. The problem we are facing is your requirements for audits and the form SSA-89. We can code a solution to where the citizen digitally fills out the form and signs it. THE PROBLEM is when that form is generated. It cannot be stored on our servers because the aggregated Pii violates our terms of service and the integrity of the users privacy.

We could save the form across our decentralized architecture but there would be no way for our company to retrieve it.  Let me clarify. If SSA came to us and asked to see physical and/or digital copies of the SSA-89's for the citizens who digitally submitted the CBSV, it absolutely impossible for us to retrieve those records. You would have to contact the citizen and they would have to send you that information. All of these records can be generated from their singularity.

How do we do this? We cannot aggregate a citizens personally identifiable information in a centralized location. Please advise.

Very Respectfully,

Edward W. Hood

Founder

19Apr2021, 1520hrs

It is a requirement that the SSA-89 be retained by the company and is a violation of the CBSV User Agreement and subjects the company to suspension or possible termination for such a violation.

Rhonda D. Hooks, Program Analyst

SSA, ORDP, ODEPPIN,ODXIA

State and Private Industry Agreements Branch

( 410-597-1733

19Apr 2021, 1524hrs

Who has the authority to change this requirement? There is literally no way American's can have true privacy without this requirement being modified and/or eliminated.

Edward W. Hood

Founder

19Apr2021, 1533hrs

This is a requirement that cannot be changed.  The companies have to ensure the security of the form and be able to retain it for our audit purposes. All companies currently enrolled in CBSV comply with this requirement.

Rhonda D. Hooks, Program Analyst

SSA, ORDP, ODEPPIN,ODXIA

State and Private Industry Agreements Branch

( 410-597-1733

19Apr2021, 1615hrs

Ma'am,

       Are you the individual who makes the decision to modify the form SSA-89 or does it have to go through a committee?

Edward W. Hood

Founder

21Apr2021, 2129hrs

Hello again,

         Thank you for helping us. We have been looking at your Technical Information Document regarding the ECBSV data flow. It is imperative to know this information. When the auditor comes to inspect our records, will they have a copy of the original API request which will include the following information.

ExchangeID

authorization
ExternaltransactionID

ContentType

Accept

EIN

ExternalSEQN

SSN

Dateofbirth

Lastname

Firstname

Signature Type

Please indicate which information will be on the auditors paperwork. Hopefully, all of those fields.... If a particular field is not listed on the auditors paperwork regarding a citizens consent form, we need to know what fields are not on that form.

In your service,

Edward W. Hood

Founder

22April2021, 1542hrs

Hello,

Thank you for your question.  We are still working on the audit piece and have not identified specific requirements for the API request.  We won’t have that information until this fall or later. Please check back then.

Thank you,

Curt

eCBSV Team

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