The thing is, Lisa, you're bringing up a controversy that is largely a non-issue at the moment and has no particular relevance to the question that was asked, any more than a new shopper needs to be told "Sometimes never" and get the whole Freeman story if they innocently ask, "How long does it usually take to get paid for mystery shopping?" Freeman was a fluke. The couple of people who think they were targeted for enforcement because of their EIN are also flukes.
Mysterious came to us in all innocence, just wanting to know if this is something s/he should consider doing. Something that is widely recommended by countless small business experts as a smart thing to do if you're in a situation of having to give a tax ID number to places that may have questionable control over their data. Instead they were given controversy and nastiness and few facts to back up the controversy.
Anyone on disability needs to know what their restrictions are. There are exceptions to all rules, so if being on disability carries some unusual baggage with it, then the disabled person likely knows, or should know, what restrictions they have on working while collecting disability. If you're mystery shopping while on disability, hopefully you fully understand the consequences.
I will heartily agree that forcing someone to get an EIN is unnecessary and by itself means absolutely nothing in the debate over employee vs contractor. But that doesn't make EINs per se evil or dangerous.
Now, if mysterious had come in here saying, "An MSC says I can't shop for them any more unless I get an EIN. Do I really have to?" then that would be a good time to tell them of the prior controversy and encourage them to stand their ground if they don't want to get the EIN. And don't be surprised if I chime in with "more shops for me" if they ended up being terminated from the MSC for refusing to do it. But that's not what mysterious came here to ask about.
And mrcomputer, I did not judge anyone here. My dispute lies entirely with the whole negativity that issues from some people here every time the subject of EIN's is raised. The subject never was about EIN's and disability; it was about EIN's possibly bringing down *local* enforcement of unknown business laws. What does that have to do with anyone's eligibility for disability payments? If someone asked, "Should I take this golf shop?" do we really need to announce that they could lose their disability payments if they were seen playing 18 holes of golf, when we have no way of knowing if they are supposed to be wheelchair-bound in the first place? The disabled should know what they're allowed to do. If they're not allowed to be in business, then they shouldn't be mystery shopping at all and the EIN is merely one indicator that they are not following the rules.
Time to build a bigger bridge.