DOGE access to Social Security, IRS data could create privacy and security risks, experts say

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may already have access to sensitive tax and medical data stored at the IRS and Social Security Administration (SSA), which jointly retain disability diagnoses, child adoption information, exceptionally detailed financial data and individuals’ immigration status, experts say.

The data could easily be leaked in a breach, experts and civil liberties advocates say, and public perceptions that tax return information is no longer private could lead to fewer people filing taxes. There is also a possibility that the data will be weaponized against perceived political enemies, advocates say, pointing to public comments from the Trump administration.

On Monday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller told Fox News that DOGE would soon begin accessing the most sensitive tax system at the IRS. Miller said DOGE will not obtain sensitive data because it will be looking for fraud and examples of “unfair politicization” of tax data at the “programmatic level.”

On Sunday, SSA Acting Commissioner Michelle King left her position after refusing to provide DOGE access to data repositories at the agency.

A lawsuit filed against the IRS and DOGE on Monday seeks a restraining order to stop the Elon Musk-led team from accessing IRS data and to force them to delete data they have already obtained.

Tax data housed at the IRS includes details about charitable donations and dependents; whether an individual’s tax return has or is being investigated; businesses’ profit and loss statements and payroll; and individuals’ incomes, assets and liabilities, according to the lawsuit.

IRS data is by law among the most closely guarded information collected by the U.S. government. The agency stores data contained in the approximately 270 million tax returns that individuals, businesses and nonprofits file annually.

SSA stores data showing specific health diagnoses, incarceration history and citizenship status for about 70 million people, experts say.

“This is extremely significant — the grand total of data that DOGE is accessing represents the ability to target individuals, target governmental employees and shut down programs that people depend on,” said Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel at the ACLU. “The fact that SSA and IRS data cover so many Americans increases the risk of data misuse as well as cybersecurity breaches.”

The IRS and SSA did not respond to requests for comment.

Protected data

Tax data is uniquely protected under a federal law implemented after President Richard Nixon attempted to misuse tax information to punish enemies during the Watergate era. Following that scandal, Congress enacted the Tax Reform Act of 1976 to set guardrails protecting tax information from abuse.

While the Internal Revenue Code, a provision within the Tax Reform Act, allows government employees and contractors to access IRS data to do their jobs, there are harsh penalties for improper use and public disclosures of that data. In January 2024 a former IRS contractor was sentenced to five years in prison for disclosing thousands of tax returns without authorization.

The law requires that tax information, including returns, be kept confidential with inspections and disclosures only allowed in statutory situations which mandate that even Treasury Department officials can access the data only when their “official duties require such inspection or disclosure for tax administration purposes.”

One data system at the IRS receives special protections. DOGE is seeking access to that repository, the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), Miller told Fox News. 

The lawsuit filed Monday cites tax experts saying it is “highly unusual and perhaps unprecedented” for political appointees to obtain access to the IDRS. (The Trump administration has said DOGE workers are employed by the government).

“Even IRS commissioners do not typically have access to all taxpayer data systems,” the lawsuit says.

Commissioners may not access the data, but many IRS employees routinely work with it, a former IRS commissioner said.

Charles Rettig — who Trump appointed as IRS commissioner in his first administration — told Recorded Future News that while he did not have access to IRDS data as commissioner, more than 1,000 employees and outside contractors did in order to perform their jobs.

“Based on numerous online comments, it seems most individuals have little to no privacy concern about DOGE having visual access to the IRS IDRS systems and are more concerned about situations involving waste and improper payments by the federal government,” he said.

Potential consequences

Concerns about DOGE’s activities at the IRS are being amplified by the lack of transparency about what exactly is being accessed and why, especially since the executive order creating DOGE indicated the group would be attempting to modernize IT and software at federal agencies, which does not comport with its demands to access personal tax return data.

“The problem with DOGE’s current access is that there is no transparency about why they need this information, what they intend to do with it and whether they can assure the American taxpayer that their private tax data will be kept confidential, said Scott Michel, a tax lawyer at Caplin and Drysdale.  

“Absent such an assurance, and the accountability necessary to guarantee it, every American taxpayer – even billionaires – has a reason to fear that their private tax information will be both accessed and used for improper purposes,” Michel added. 

If DOGE does not offer a thorough explanation for what it is doing, Michel said the U.S.’s “voluntary compliance system will suffer for years and much needed government revenue will take a hit.”

The Center for Taxpayer Rights, one of the plaintiffs in Monday’s lawsuit, helps undocumented immigrants and low-income people challenging IRS decisions navigate the system. 

The organization also works with domestic violence survivors who are frequently audited because their abusers have claimed them or their dependents on tax forms, the lawsuit says.

The population the center assists is frightened by DOGE’s activities, does not want to be outed as undocumented or low income and in some cases will likely no longer file tax returns as a result of what’s happening, the lawsuit says. 

The lack of transparency into DOGE’s activities is made worse by the possibility that Musk could access the tax records of business competitors as well as information on potential IRS investigations of his and his competitors’ companies, according to the lawsuit, which was brought by unions and taxpayer advocacy organizations.

“No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,” the lawsuit says.