A quiet regulatory update by the Social Security Administration (SSA) may raise fresh concerns about the government’s growing use of surveillance tools to monitor ordinary Americans.
In early January, SSA updated the Evidence of Foreign Travel – Foreign Travel Data application to increase scrutiny of foreign travel by Americans receiving benefits. The change allows the agency to use travel data collected by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
The update affects millions of Social Security beneficiaries, as well as people who receive support from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program (1).
In other words, this tighter monitoring could affect Americans who receive retirement benefits or support based on need, life circumstances or disability. And it comes at a time when the government’s data handling practices are under increasing scrutiny.
If you’re uneasy about the government’s ability to monitor individual activity, this update deserves a closer look.
Recent changes affect many beneficiaries under SSA’s jurisdiction. As of December 2025, SSA has paid benefits to approximately 75 million people, of whom approximately 11 million are under age 65 and collecting disability benefits, and approximately 5 million are collecting SSI alone (2).
Under longstanding regulations, SSI and Social Security recipients must self-report foreign travel of 30 days or more. If you are a citizen, you may still be able to collect Social Security while living abroad, but SSI is strictly limited to residents of the United States and certain US territories (3).
SSA’s revised regulations update this reporting requirement to place less emphasis on self-reporting and more emphasis on data collected by DHS. The agency argues that the move is about compliance and is part of an effort to “prevent improper payments” (1).
However, the change may reflect a broader shift toward automated monitoring of benefit recipients, with limited transparency about how travel data is collected, stored and shared across agencies.
It comes at a time when government surveillance and data handling is under increasing scrutiny.
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The agency’s changes come at a time when there is growing unease about the government’s data handling and surveillance operations.
Recently declassified court files from the Department of Justice revealed that two members of a team associated with Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative were working inside the SSA, communicating secretly with political advocacy groups early last year. That group was seeking to overturn election results in some states, Politico reported. A man reportedly signed an agreement that may include using Social Security data to help reconcile state voter rolls (4).
And, as Wired reported in May, the Trump administration has been allowing the SSA and other agencies to share sensitive personal data with DHS for months. The data will be used to target immigrants for visa enforcement or even deportation. The federal government has recently made the data exchange official through a public notice (5).
An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a progressive American think tank, suggests that an agreement to share Social-Security data with immigration enforcement could give the agency access to sensitive data about more than 500 million people who have applied for a Social Security number. Some of its data may be outdated and full of errors, according to the CBPP, which increases the risk that some voters may be disenfranchised before the midterm elections in November 2026 (6).
To be clear, this latest DHS travel-tracking update — which is about surveying Social Security recipients, not specifically immigrants — is separate from what we know. But all these incidents, taken together, give weight to fears that sensitive SSA data could be misused, improperly accessed or reused beyond its original purpose.
Simply put, workers and retirees are increasingly being monitored by error-prone automated systems. If you are uncomfortable about these events, there are ways to protect yourself.
If you receive Social Security and are traveling out of the country for an extended period or expect changes in your circumstances that may affect your benefits, make sure you document and report it carefully to avoid any errors. Many different changes in circumstances, such as your income, employment status, or medical conditions, are all reportable to the SSA and can affect your benefits (7).
Second, review your SSA records regularly. Errors can and do occur, and automated systems are not immune to them. Checking your Social Security information regularly can help you spot these discrepancies and resolve them before they affect your benefits or, if it comes to voting rights.
For some Americans, the new SSA rules and data sharing policy blur the line between eligibility enforcement and personal surveillance.
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Social Security Administration (1); Social Security Administration (2); Social Security Administration (3); Politics (4); wire (5); Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (6); Social Security Administration (7)
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