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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
DOGE just got a green light to access your Social Security data. | |
Here’s what that means | |
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN | |
Updated: | |
6:15 PM EDT, Fri June 6, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
When people think of Social Security, they typically think of monthly | |
benefits — for the roughly 69 million retirees, disabled workers, | |
dependents and survivors who receive them today. | |
But efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency this year to | |
access the Social Security Administration’s data systems should | |
conjure up thoughts of data on hundreds of millions of people. | |
Why? Because the SSA’s multiple data systems contain an extensive | |
trove of personal information on most people living in the United | |
States today — as well as those who have died. | |
While a lower federal court had blocked DOGE’s efforts to access such | |
data — which it it needs in order to curtail waste, fraud and abuse | |
— the on Friday, for now. | |
The three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji | |
Brown Jackson — dissented. In her opinion, Jackson wrote, “The | |
government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, | |
non-anonymized information right now — before the courts have time to | |
assess whether DOGE’s access is lawful,” she added. | |
Your data ‘from cradle to grave’ | |
The personal data the Social Security Adminstration has on most | |
Americans runs “from cradle to grave,” said Kathleen Romig, who | |
used to work at the SSA, first as a retirement policy analyst and more | |
recently as a senior adviser in the Office of the Commissioner. | |
DOGE was created unilaterally by President Donald Trump with the goal | |
of “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize | |
governmental efficiency and productivity,” according to his executive | |
order. To date, the group has and intimidation at a number of federal | |
agencies where it has sought to various types of spending. It is also | |
the subject of various lawsuits to access wholesale the personal data | |
of Americans on highly restricted government IT systems and to fire | |
groups of federal workers in the manner it has. | |
Here’s just a partial list of the data the SSA systems likely have | |
about you: your name, Social Security number, date and place of birth, | |
gender, addresses, marital and parental status, your parents’ names, | |
lifetime earnings, bank account information, immigration and work | |
authorization status, health conditions if you apply for disability | |
benefits, and use of Medicare after a certain age, which the SSA may | |
periodically check to ascertain whether you’re still alive. | |
Other types of personal information also may be obtained or matched | |
through the SSA’s data-sharing agreements with the IRS and the | |
Department of Health and Human Services. Information on your assets and | |
living arrangements also may be gathered if you apply for , which is | |
meant to help those with very limited income. | |
Complex, interconnected systems | |
As with the to which DOGE has also sought access, the SSA systems are | |
old, complex, interconnected and run on programming language developed | |
decades ago. If you make a change in one system, it could trip up | |
another if you don’t know what you’re doing, said Romig, who now is | |
director of Social Security and disability policy at the liberal Center | |
on Budget and Policy Priorities. | |
And, just as at the IRS, there are concerns that if DOGE team members | |
get access to the SSA systems and seek to make changes directly or | |
through an SSA employee, they could cause technical errors or base | |
their decisions on incorrect understandings of the data. | |
For example, multibillionaire CEO Elon Musk, a driving force at DOGE, | |
had that SSA is making payments to millions of dead people. His claim | |
appeared to be based on the so-called Numident list, which is a limited | |
collection of personal data, Romig said. The list includes names, | |
Social Security numbers, and a person’s birth and death dates. But | |
the Numident list does not reflect the death dates for 18.9 million | |
people who were born in 1920 or earlier. That’s a known problem, | |
which the Social Security inspector general in a 2023 already | |
recommended the agency correct. That same report, however, also noted | |
that “almost none of the 18.9 million number holders currently | |
receive SSA payments.” | |
And making any decisions based on mistaken interpretations could create | |
real-world problems for individuals. | |
For example, Romig said, there are different types of Social Security | |
numbers assigned — eg, for US citizens, for noncitizens with work | |
authorization and for people on student visas who do not have work | |
authorization. But a person’s status can change over time. For | |
example, someone on a student visa may eventually get work | |
authorization. But it’s up to the individual to update the SSA on | |
their status. If they don’t do so immediately or maybe not even for | |
years, the lists on SSA systems may not be fully up to date. So it’s | |
easy to see how a new entity like DOGE, unfamiliar with the complexity | |
of Social Security’s processes, might make a quick decision affecting | |
a particular group of people on a list that itself may not be current. | |
Charles Blahous, a senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at | |
George Mason University, has been a leading proponent of addressing | |
Social Security’s long-term funding shortfall. And he is all for | |
rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. | |
But, Blahous noted, “best estimates of improper payments in Social | |
Security are less than 1% of the program’s outlays. I’ve been | |
concerned that this particular conversation is fueling profound | |
misimpressions about Social Security and the policy challenges | |
surrounding it.” | |
Access to SSA data had always been tightly restricted | |
SSA’s data systems are housed in locked rooms, and permission to view | |
— never mind alter — information on them has always been highly | |
restricted, Romig said, noting that she was fingerprinted and had to | |
pass a background check before being allowed to view data for her | |
research while at the agency — and it could only be data that had no | |
personally identifiable information. | |
Given the variety of personal data available, there are also a number | |
of limiting the use and dissemination of such information. | |
Such laws are intended to prevent not only improper use or leaks of the | |
data by individuals, but abuse of power by government, according to the | |
Center on Democracy and Technology. | |
Acting SSA commissioner puts out statement on transparency | |
DOGE’s arrival at the SSA resulted in a number of seasoned employees | |
leaving the agency, including Michelle King, a long-time career service | |
executive who briefly served as acting commissioner from January 20 | |
until February 16. She resigned after DOGE staffers attempted to access | |
sensitive government records. In her place, SSA employee Lee Dudek was | |
named acting director. | |
Dudek put out a on SSA’s “Commitment to Agency Transparency and | |
Protecting Benefits and Information” when he came on. | |
In it, he noted that DOGE personnel: a) “cannot make changes to | |
agency systems, benefit payments, or other information”; b) “only | |
have read access” to data; c) “do not have access to data related | |
to a court ordered temporary restraining order, current or future”; | |
and d) “must follow the law and if they violate the law they will be | |
referred to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution.” | |
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