Most documents maintained in the Department of the Secretary of State files are
public records subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act, Chapter 132 of
the North Carolina General Statutes. Many documents, including filings made with
our Corporations Division and Uniform Commercial Code Section, may be viewed on
our Web site.We also provide copies of many records upon request and payment of
the applicable fee.
Our Notary Public and Securities business lines request social security numbers
as part of their business processes.Please note that we while we request this data,
we do not make it readily available to the public.
Considering our documents’ public nature, unless required by the Department to process
your transaction, PLEASE DO NOT PLACE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER
on business entity annual reports, Uniform Commercial Code filings or other documents
you submit to us.Although we attempt to prevent disclosure of social security numbers
in all circumstances, due to the large number of documents we receive and limited
resources to process those documents, we cannot guarantee a social security number
mistakenly placed on a document filed with us will not be disclosed.