Two “insiders” with the Social Security Administration (SSA) warn that the recent accessing of personal Social Security information by billionaire transphobe Elon Musk and agents of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could easily enable the current presidential administration to identify transgender Americans for government persecution.

DOGE representatives Mike Russo and Akash Bobba entered the SSA on January 31 and got access to data on every person in the U.S. with a Social Security number, according to a court filing challenging DOGE’s access to the data. The data includes the addresses, medical and work histories, tax, banking and citizenship information, and family records of every person in the U.S. with a Social Security number, Rolling Stone reported.

DOGE had access to the data for nearly two months before federal Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander ordered DOGE and Musk to delete any non-anonymized data and to stop accessing the data in general. The AFL-CIO, one of the nation’s biggest labor unions, sued over the matter.

When Hollander asked government lawyers why DOGE needed unlimited access to the “personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information” of millions of Americans, the lawyers could provide no reason. DOGE has since claimed that it needs the data to find cases of theft and waste, but one expert who testified in the case says this isn’t true.

Tiffany Flick, a 30-year SSA veteran, testified in the case that DOGE’s demand for the data was “unusual and improper,” adding that neither Russo nor Bobba had the training or security clearances to handle such data. Flick said that a theft and waste audit could be conducted with access to the SSA’s full data set.

She also said DOGE’s access to the data left it vulnerable to mishandling by “bad actors” like hostile foreign governments or U.S. administration officials who could use the data to locate and persecute political dissidents, elected officials, journalists, transgender people, and other “political enemies.”

Zinnia Jones, a transgender activist and researcher, told Rolling Stone that the SSA data could be used to “identify nearly all likely transgender people in the U.S. with 99% confidence.” Jones noted that a 2015 U.S. Census Bureau used the same SSA data that DOGE accessed to estimate the nation’s trans population.

An anonymous former federal employee agreed with Jones’ assessment, adding that the information could be used to identify and remove trans employees from the government. An anonymous current SSA employee also told Rolling Stonethat the information could be used to harass medical providers who offer services of which the current administration disapproves. Currently, these services include gender-affirming care, a type of care that the current administration has sought to defund and eradicate completely.

This prospect seems notable considering that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently changed its policies to allow spying on LGBTQ+ people & groups as dangers to U.S. safety. The rule change occurred under the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, an office that has a long track record of violating civil liberties and rights, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

In response to Judge Hollander’s ruling telling DOGE to stop accessing SSA data, SSA acting commissioner Leland Dudek said he could shut all SSA employees out of the data, saying, “Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.”

Dudek later walked back his comment, saying that the court had issued clarifying guidance about its orders. “Therefore, I am not shutting down the agency,” he said.