Stephen Fowler and Jenna McLaughlin report:
Fewer than 50 people have access to Social Security Administration databases containing hundreds of millions of people’s private financial and personal information.
But only one also has access to the government’s human resources and student loan files.
Akash Bobba is one of many Department of Government Efficiency staffers who have embedded in federal agencies the last few months with virtually unfettered access to the sensitive, compartmentalized sources of data collected by the government. The team, which is steered by billionaire Elon Musk, says it’s scouring government records for signs of waste, fraud and abuse.
Bobba is also one of many DOGE employees who, according to several federal judges, were inappropriately given that access in violation of privacy laws and without proper training to handle the personally identifiable information the agencies collect.
In one order last week blocking DOGE’s access to Social Security data, U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of Maryland said the government “never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government.”
Read more on Utah Public Radio.