SSN is now usually called “Tax Payer ID” to refocus it on its purpose (and to better support immigration). It was never meant to be an ID, does not issue anything that ought to be used as an ID, and has been discouraged for years

I don’t have SSN on my passport or drivers license and I thought RealID prohibited it. I do remember having to check a box for my drivers license to not use it but that was 30+ years ago. Sometime in the past three decades it became standard to not use the SSN, at least in my state, although I couldn’t narrow down how long ago.

….. and yet a social security card is one of the pieces of “ID” needed to get an ID in the first place. It’s just a printed form, not even laminated, yet we have to use an official copy?