DOGE might have misused Social Security data, Trump administration admits

Elon Musk joins U.S. President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on February 11, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Image credit: Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

  • DOGE employees may have made a deal with an advocacy group that looked to 'overturn election results in certain states'
  • The employees have been referred for potential violations of the Hatch Act
  • Private information could have been shared through unapproved 'third party' servers

The US Department of Justice has confirmed in a court filing that members of Elon Musk’s "DOGE" were ‘secretly’ in contact with an advocacy group seeking to ‘overturn election results in certain states’ - and one such member went as far as to sign an agreement which may have ‘involved using Social Security data to match state voter rolls.’

The DOGE employees in question have been referred for potential violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their positions for political purposes.

It is said the political advocacy group, which is not named in the court documents, approached the DOGE team at the Social Security Administration (SSA), and requested to ‘analyze state voter rolls’ with a goal to finding ‘evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States,’ a Justice Department official confirmed.

Unapproved ‘third party’ servers

The data accessed by DOGE staff might have been private information, which was ruled to be off-limits by a court, and was potentially shared through unapproved ‘third party’ servers - ‘Cloudflare’.

"SSA believed those statements to be accurate at the time they were made, and they are largely still accurate," the Justice Department official wrote, adding "At this time, there is no evidence that SSA employees outside of the involved members of the DOGE Team were aware of the communications with the advocacy group. Nor were they aware of the ‘Voter Data Agreement."

It was also revealed a senior adviser to Musk and the DOGE team, Steve Davis, was "copied on a March 3, 2025 email that included a password-protected file containing private information of about 1,000 people contained in Social Security systems," Politico reports.

It is as yet unknown whether the private information was accessed, or whether this was ‘utilized’ by the department.


Best identity theft protection header
The best ID theft protection for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best identity theft protection
1. Best overall:
Aura
2. Best for families:
IdentityForce
3. Best for credit beginners:
Experian IdentityWorks

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.

Ellen has been writing for almost four years, with a focus on post-COVID policy whilst studying for BA Politics and International Relations at the University of Cardiff, followed by an MA in Political Communication. Before joining TechRadar Pro as a Junior Writer, she worked for Future Publishing’s MVC content team, working with merchants and retailers to upload content.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.