Questions about data governance and privacy safeguards at the U.S. Social Security Administration have resurfaced following new court filings that allege employees tied to the Department of Government Efficiency accessed sensitive agency systems.

Accusations that DOGE employees may have illegally accessed or copied SSA data first emerged in August when a senior official filed a whistleblower complaint.

DOGE was created by the Trump Administration with Elon Musk to streamline federal operations and identify inefficiencies across government agencies. As part of its mandate, DOGE staff were granted access to certain SSA systems to analyze benefits data and internal processes, but that access became the subject of litigation after advocacy groups argued it violated federal privacy laws designed to protect personally identifiable information.

According to filings submitted by the U.S. Department of Justice last week as reported today by Axios, DOGE personnel accessed SSA data in ways that exceeded approved internal controls. The DOJ claims that some information was transferred to external systems that were not authorized under the agency’s security policies, raising concerns about compliance with federal data handling requirements.

According to Newsmax, DOGE team members used Cloudflare Inc. servers to share data in March this year. Cloudflare is not approved for storing SSA data and, at least currently, the agency said it cannot determine what information was uploaded or whether it remains accessible.

The filings did not allege that data was publicly disclosed, but they did say that safeguards intended to limit access were not consistently enforced.

The court documents also reveal communications between DOGE employees and an outside political organization seeking assistance with voter roll analysis, including one DOGE staffer signing an agreement related to voter data work while still holding federal access credentials. Though the DOJ said that it has not found evidence that Social Security data itself was shared with any outside groups, it called the interactions problematic given the sensitivity of SSA data and the strict rules governing its use.

As a result of its findings, the Justice Department has referred two DOGE employees to the Office of Special Counsel for potential violations of the Hatch Act, an act that restricts political activity by federal employees. The referral does not necessarily mean they were guilty of wrongdoing, just that the allegations require further investigation.

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