Editor’s Note: This article, which originally ran on February 19, has been updated to reflect a Supreme Court decision handed down on June 6. CNN —

When people think of Social Security, they typically think of monthly benefits — for the roughly 69 million retirees, disabled workers, dependents and survivors who receive them today.

But efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency this year to access the Social Security Administration’s data systems should conjure up thoughts of data on hundreds of millions of people.

Why? Because the SSA’s multiple data systems contain an extensive trove of personal information on most people living in the United States today — as well as those who have died.

While a lower federal court had blocked DOGE’s efforts to access such data — whic

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