Our website, our call centres and the Service Canada centres tell Canadians who they may give their social insurance numbers to. When we issue social insurance numbers, we actually tell people who they should and should not give it to. A certain number of organizations are authorized to ask for social insurance numbers, for example when a bank or creditor pays interest, which the Canada Revenue Agency needs to know.
If someone not on that list asks for a social insurance number, people can refuse and ask to provide another form of information. For example, a long time ago, landlords often asked tenants for social insurance numbers in order to check their credit. They can simply provide a credit report rather than give out their social insurance number. The person asking the question must—