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Thursday night, Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), made a stunning announcement: he is open to shutting down the agency’s information technology systems, potentially bringing Social Security payments to over 70 million Americans to a standstill, if Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is not provided access to sensitive, non-anonymized personal data.
“As it stands, I will follow [the judge’s order] to the letter and close off access by all SSA employees to our IT systems,” Dudek said, as quoted by Bloomberg. “Quite frankly, I would prefer to shut it down and let the courts determine how they want to run a federal agency.”
The menace is a response to a temporary restraining order given by a judge that bars DOGE — along with Musk individually — from accessing Americans’ private data through the SSA. The order, initiated by a case brought by the AFL-CIO union, further requires Musk and DOGE to delete all previously obtained data that had not been sufficiently anonymized.
The court ruled that SSA’s actions could have violated federal privacy and administrative laws when it granted the DOGE blanket access to extremely sensitive information — including Social Security numbers, medical and mental health records, banking information, tax history, income, work history, and even marriage and birth certificates.
A Judge’s Scathing Rebuke
U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander was direct in her ruling. She chastised the SSA for its decision to give gigantic amounts of private data to Musk’s DOGE team for no reason.
“The defendants. failed to identify or allege even a single purpose for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access,” wrote Hollander. She also highlighted the risks of exposing millions of Americans’ personal data, and said the SSA’s actions were reckless and legally questionable.
The order does make allowance for restricted access to redacted or anonymized information, but only if DOGE members receive routine data protection training in line with federal law — a requirement Dudek appears to dismiss summarily.
A Threat That Could Affect Millions
Dudek’s statements have sparked serious alarm. His threat to shut out SSA staff from their own information systems has the potential to cripple the very infrastructure utilized to distribute Social Security payments — denying vital income to seniors, disabled Americans, and vulnerable citizens.
This is not the first controversial move from the DOGE project. Under Musk’s leadership, the team has already begun closing SSA field offices, curtailing phone service, and pushily encouraging in-person verifications, making it even harder for people to access their benefits.
Musk’s Outrageous Claims and Dubious Goals
Elon Musk, who now has a central role in shaping Social Security policy in the Trump White House, has gone on record calling the program “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” — a claim that experts have repeatedly debunked.
He has also made untrue claims about millions of deceased people receiving benefits, using those unfounded allegations to justify wide-ranging data access and massive program cuts. Musk has even said he wants to eliminate $700 billion annually in fraud, an amount far greater than anything any expert considers realistic.
A Dangerous Precedent?
Critics argue that the Trump administration’s willingness to tie Social Security benefits to Musk’s data needs sets a dangerous precedent. By holding benefits hostage unless DOGE is granted unfettered access to extremely personal information, Dudek and his co-conspirators may be putting the entire program — and public trust — at risk in the bargain.
For the moment, the courts have stepped in to rescue Americans’ data. But the fight over privacy, power, and the future of Social Security is far from over.
