DOGE’s Data Digging at the Social Security Administration Puts Millions of Americans at Risk

In retirement and disability, people count on Social Security benefits. But well before they make their first claim, people rely on the Social Security Administration (SSA) to respect and protect the considerable personal data it collects on them starting from birth. Now, the actions of the Trump administration, with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the helm, put everyone with a Social Security number at risk of their information being misused, ripped off, or manipulated for political gain.

The SSA maintains significant sensitive information on essentially all Americans

The SSA holds information about virtually all Americans that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Most obviously, it issues and controls all Social Security numbers, the personal identifiers used for the agency’s own record tracking as well as in many other settings, such as applying for credit and accessing health insurance. Moreover, the agency has detailed records of individuals’ lifetime earnings, immigration status, and other personal information. These records are used not only by the SSA but also by other government agencies and private sector users, including life insurance companies and creditors.

For those receiving or seeking Social Security benefits, the SSA has even more information. In April 2025, 99.3 percent of Social Security beneficiaries received their benefits by direct deposit—meaning that the SSA is holding the banking details of more than 67 million seniors, disabled people, and other beneficiaries. Notably, when people apply for disability benefits, the agency receives significant sensitive medical information, often including records going back decades, creating a detailed record of physical or mental health conditions unlike nearly anything else in government.

DOGE has aggressively pursued control over this data

DOGE has persistently pursued unrestricted access to this sensitive and carefully protected data. SSA staff who stood up for Americans’ private information have left the agency in response to DOGE’s pressures, been physically removed, or been replaced by formerly suspended employees who helped DOGE. As a result of this incursion, as a federal court opinion summarized, “SSA provided members of the SSA DOGE Team with unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans [despite having] never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems.” These actions fly in the face of laws like the Privacy Act of 1974, which strictly limits how federal agencies can collect, share, and use personal data—protections enacted in response to Nixon-era abuses of personal information.

In March, District Court Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander issued a temporary restraining order enjoining SSA officials from giving DOGE officials access to SSA systems containing personally identifying information. In response, acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek repeatedly publicly threatened to shut down the entire agency, which would have cut off benefits to the more than 1 in 5 Americans who rely on them; he quickly walked back these threats. And despite the court order, The Washington Post reported that DOGE staff have not only continued to pressure SSA for restricted information but, in at least some cases, have been actually granted access—purportedly by mistake. On April 17, Judge Hollander issued a preliminary injunction essentially continuing the effect of the temporary restraining order, with an opinion describing the SSA’s provision of personal information to DOGE as an “intrusion into the personal affairs of millions of Americans.”

The Trump administration is manipulating Social Security records for political purposes and weaponizing them against vulnerable people

Already, Trump officials have distorted or exploited SSA data for political purposes, with profound consequences. Under pressure from DOGE, the agency falsely marked more than 6,000 immigrants as “dead” in their records. Labeling a person this way nullifies their Social Security number, cutting off government benefits such as Medicare and blocking their ability to work, bank, or use credit cards. The move, which a former SSA commissioner described as “tantamount to financial murder,” was deliberately aimed at pressuring immigrants whose legal status was recently revoked by the Trump administration to “self-deport.” Notably, some victims have since succeeded in getting their Social Security numbers reinstated. As DOGE officials work under President Donald Trump’s direction to consolidate unprecedented amounts of data from across the government, including from the SSA, there is growing risk that information Americans have trusted the government with will be turned against them.

The misuse of death records is just one in a series of harmful distortions or abuses of Social Security data to further the Trump administration’s political agenda. According to The New York Times, a DOGE staffer who was moved from the SSA to the U.S. Department of Justice is “scouring Social Security databases for information on thousands of undocumented immigrants already subject to deportation proceedings,” seemingly part of broader DOGE efforts to consolidate data to target immigrants. In another instance, a DOGE official seemingly used SSA data—potentially violating the court order—to push long-debunked claims about noncitizen voting. And when Maine’s governor publicly pushed back on President Trump’s threats to pull federal funding from states supporting trans athletes, acting SSA Commissioner Dudek responded by cutting key contracts for birth and death records in the state, which would place heavy and unnecessary burdens on new parents and grieving loved ones. After reversing the change, Dudek admitted that he ordered the contract terminations because he was “ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president.”

DOGE access to Americans’ personal data at the SSA poses other significant risks

In addition to the abuses above, there is substantial risk that SSA data are being exploited for private gain. Across government, DOGE’s actions raise questions about whether federal data are being transferred to private entities or being used to power privately owned artificial intelligence (AI) software. In an affidavit filed in federal court, a former senior federal technology official noted the “critical concern” of AI models being trained on SSA data, potentially permanently incorporating that private information into the model in a way that would be very difficult to undo, even if DOGE’s access to SSA data was later cut off. Specifically, the affidavit highlighted: “For example, if SSA data has been integrated into Grok, an AI tool owned by Elon Musk, this would create an unfair advantage, granting it access to uniquely sensitive government-held information that no competitor could obtain.” If this were to occur—or has already occurred—the private information of millions of Americans’ medical records, earnings data, and bank accounts could be being used without their knowledge or permission to advantage private businesses, perhaps even that of the leader of DOGE. This parallels concerning reports of DOGE using Grok as a tool in its work and inputting other federal agency data into AI tools.

At the same time, as one agency report noted, “The information SSA houses on every numberholder is desirable to would-be hackers and identity thieves.” Yet Trump administration actions have increased the risk of outside hackers and other bad actors gaining entry. For example, a DOGE employee with extraordinarily broad access reportedly used SSA systems from insecure offsite locations, stymying the agency’s protective protocols and raising the risks of exposure to intruders. Similarly, Michael Astrue, who was appointed as SSA commissioner by President George W. Bush, has highlighted the urgent and profound threat of foreign governments accessing data that are improperly downloaded or protected, saying: “We should be petrified about privacy and theft of data.”

Even without nefarious intent, careless actions with SSA systems put Americans at risk—particularly when the Trump administration’s cuts have put agency capacity under profound strain. While President Trump and Elon Musk repeat the long-debunked claim that dead people are claiming Social Security benefits, DOGE staffers are reportedly searching for dead claimants. As a result, according to The Washington Post, more than 10 million new people have been marked as dead since early March, including many seniors who are very much alive.

For example, the SSA erroneously declared 82-year-old Seattle resident Ned Johnson dead. Before Johnson was even aware of or could remedy the mistake, the agency cut off his retirement benefits, took thousands of dollars out of his bank account, and cut off his Medicare. Similarly, Richard VanMetter, a 76-year-old in Florida, was attempting to buy a sandwich when his credit card was declined because the SSA had marked him as dead, the first indication of a mistake that cut off his health insurance, retirement benefits, and pension payments he’s still struggling to get back. While errors have always existed, the Trump administration’s cuts to SSA staff and support services and meddling with death records make such harmful mistakes both more likely and harder to fix.

Conclusion

Americans deserve to know that the sensitive information they have entrusted to the Social Security Administration won’t be exploited or exposed. They deserve to know that their government won’t manipulate and distort records to do them harm or pursue political payback. Generations of Americans have known the Social Security Administration as honest stewards of their most private information as well as steadfast providers of the retirement and disability benefits that sustain them. In a few short months, the Trump administration has shattered trust that took decades to earn—trust that, unless DOGE’s ransacking of Social Security ends and those who perpetrated it are held accountable, may never be regained.