A whistleblower complaint alleging that sensitive social security data covering 500 million Americans may have been leaked has triggered political controversy in Washington and renewed scrutiny of the DOGE government efficiency programme.
The allegations centre on claims that a former engineer linked to the Department of Government Efficiency, widely known as DOGE, improperly accessed and attempted to transfer vast amounts of personal information from the Social Security Administration. If confirmed, the incident could represent one of the largest potential exposures of federal records in US history, raising urgent questions about whether personal data was mishandled during the Trump administration's push to overhaul federal agencies.
