last week, The Social Security Administration (SSA) quietly updated a public notice to reveal that the agency shares “citizenship and immigration information” with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This data sharing was already happening: WIRED reported in April that the Trump administration had already begun collecting sensitive data from across the government for immigration enforcement.
This public notice issued by SSA, months after the fact, makes it official. This notice is known as a System of Record Notice (SORN), a document that describes how an agency shares the data it has, with whom, and for what purpose. This notice is required under the Privacy Act 1974. Typically, SORNs are issued before any data is shared between agencies, giving the public and government officials ample time to comment. But WIRED found that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pulls data from across DHS, SSA, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state voter data, among other sources, primarily based on the Systematic Alien Verification (SAVE) database of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
“There are laws that require the government to inform people about their use of all kinds of databases and other surveillance technologies,” says Adam Schwartz, director of privacy litigation at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on digital privacy and free speech. If the government starts using the database and doesn’t publish proper disclosures, and later does make proper disclosures, they are still breaking the law.”
The Trump administration has made every effort to remake the government in its own image. A major component of this effort has been to collect large swaths of data from across federal agencies, much of which was never intended to be collected. This has often happened without regard to the laws, norms or procedures that normally govern the access and sharing of sensitive data. The SORN from the SSA is just the latest confirmation of exactly how much data is being shared in a way that experts tell WIRED is “unprecedented.”
Much of this data sharing begins with misinformation about what data is available. In the early days of the Trump administration, Elon Musk used a misunderstanding of SSA data to spread the claim that 150-year-olds were receiving benefits. They weren’t, but DOGE used the idea that SSA’s systems were inefficient and fraudulent to infiltrate the agency’s data and technology systems. In April, a New York Times report revealed that in an effort to force immigrants to deport themselves, the government is adding them to the SSA’s database of dead people, meaning their Social Security numbers cannot be used to find jobs or access government services. As part of an effort to combine disparate data across the government to verify citizenship and monitor immigrants, DHS recently released a different but related SORN that effectively turns SAVE into a voter verification system, which experts also warned could circumvent requirements of the Privacy Act.
Leland Dudek, who served as acting commissioner for the Social Security Administration between February and May 2025, led the agency when DOGE members first appeared. Dudek says he initially supported DOGE and acted as a bridge between SSA staff and DOGE team members before he became frustrated.
