Social Security Administration Privacy Crisis: DOGE Copied Every American's Social Security Data
A whistleblower confirms what we warned about: Silicon Valley's hostile takeover of your government records
Charles Borges didn't blow the whistle for ideology. The Social Security Administration's chief data officer filed an official complaint because DOGE operatives copied the entire SSA database—300 million Americans' names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers—onto a private cloud server with no independent security monitoring.
Think about that. Your most sensitive information, duplicated without oversight, sitting on a server controlled by Elon Musk's efficiency task force.
Borges warned of catastrophic identity theft if bad actors access this data. Americans could lose healthcare, food benefits. The government might need to reissue every Social Security number at staggering cost. The 53-year-old data steward wasn't speculating—he was doing his job.
SSA's acting commissioner Michelle King had already resigned rather than hand over the records DOGE demanded. The agency claims the data remains secure behind firewalls. Both things can be true: unhacked but fundamentally compromised by moving it beyond traditional safeguards.
The New Feudalism
This weekend was Passover - when Jews recount their enslavement in Egypt, their escape, and via a 40-year diversion through the desert, their ultimate arrival in the promised land.
Narativ readers saw this coming. Our "New Feudalism" investigation exposed how DOGE engineers built an API layer connecting IRS databases, Social Security records, Treasury payments, and federal personnel files. We documented the birth of a system where technocrats control data like medieval lords controlled land.
Now Borges confirms it. The Social Security node joins DOGE's experimental network. Palantir's data-linking technology meets Musk's move-fast-break-things ethos. Federal employees like Gavin Kliger and Sam Corcos received sweeping authority to rebuild government IT infrastructure.
The pattern emerges clearly: aggregate the data, bypass oversight, claim efficiency. Your tax returns connect to your medical records. Your benefits link to your employment history. One algorithm decides whether you qualify for student aid, disability payments, or security clearance.
Picture your mother's disability benefits delayed because an algorithm misread her medical file. Your teenager's college aid denied because the system flagged your donation to the wrong cause. These aren't hypotheticals when one entity controls every thread of your digital existence.
Senator Ron Wyden called DOGE's data handling "reckless." Labor groups filed lawsuits. The Supreme Court allowed DOGE to review data for fraud but demands grow for transparency. SSA insists on "robust safeguards" while admitting DOGE has the keys.
The whistleblower describes exactly what we predicted: government as hackathon, citizens as data points, democracy as disruption. Federal Trade Commission staffers report similar demands. Immigration officials face the same pressure. IRS engineers watch their databases merge into DOGE's grand experiment.
Technology should improve government. But who designs it? Who controls it? Who watches the watchers? A program that copies 300 million Social Security records to an unmonitored cloud deserves more than assurances. A movement connecting every federal database demands public debate.
Charles Borges risked his career to warn us. His complaint gives flesh to patterns we've tracked for months. The new feudalism thrives in darkness. Only transparency—from whistleblowers, journalists, and engaged citizens—can stop it.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Narativ with Zev Shalev to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.