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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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