Don't panic - well maybe.
People with better than short memories will recall Trumpton's demand for electoral rolls from various US states. They were told, yes this is technically public information, but we charge to give it to you. In fact, political parties routinely buy this info for their campaigns. Every year we get info sheets from the League of Women Voters telling us where and when we vote (note that in the dynamic individualistic USA, you're supposed to find out for yourself with too much govt. assistance). The LWV gets our names and addresses (and probably ages) just like the parties do, and in fact those same items of info are available for mail spammers etc.
The last 4 digits of the SS number are not supposed to be public, AFAIK. They can be used to gain access to certain websites, mostly as verification for name, address, age etc. OTOH they are routinely printed in mail you get from your bank, mutual fund etc. Thank God they stopped using the whole SS on medical insurance cards. What were they thinking?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
