Trump administration admits DOGE accessed personal Social Security data

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/20/doge-social-security-data-privacy-act/

A DOGE employee signed an agreement to share Social Security data with the aim of overturning election results in certain states, according to a new court filing.

The disclosures amount to a notable reversal by Social Security officials, who had previously claimed there was no evidence that DOGE had potentially compromised personal data. In August, after former chief data officer Charles Borges told Congress and others that DOGE was storing Americans’ data in an unsafe environment, the agency told The Washington Post it was “not aware of any compromise to this environment” and remains “dedicated to protecting sensitive personal data.”

The new disclosures came in response to a lawsuit brought by unions and an advocacy group in February attempting to block DOGE from accessing SSA data. A judge had temporarily barred DOGE from accessing sensitive data at the agency, saying that DOGE “essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion.” The Supreme Court later lifted that injunction.

The agency also acknowledged for the first time that DOGE members were using links to share data through a third-party server called Cloudflare, which is not approved for sharing Social Security data. SSA said it was unaware of the sharing until recently and doesn’t know what was shared.