DOGE's Data Access Sparks Privacy and Security Concerns Across US Government

Democrats Alarmed By DOGE's Access To 'Sensitive Databases'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and other lawmakers called the agency's assurances against privacy violations "woefully inadequate." Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other lawmakers pressed the Education Department on Wednesday to clarify how much access Elon Musk's team had been granted to student loan borrowers' sensitive data and what they planned to do with it. In a letter to acting Education Secretary Denise Carter, Democrats said the agency had provided "woefully inadequate" information about who was using the data and to what end. They said the Education Department's written response to their questions earlier this month raised "new concerns" about what Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency is up to. "The Department refused to confirm or deny whether DOGE had been granted access to the National Student Loan Data System or other databases with sensitive federal student loan data," Warren wrote in the letter, joined by 14 other Democrats. DOGE's access to the data is now the subject of a federal lawsuit brought by veterans and labor unions alleging the Trump administration violated the Privacy Act by sharing social security numbers and other sensitive information without consent. "Warren accused the agency of being 'evasive' about DOGE's use of its financial management system." A judge in that case issued a restraining order Monday blocking Musk's team from accessing the information, saying the unions were likely to succeed in their argument that the White House broke the law. The Washington Post reported on Feb. 6 that DOGE was taking personally identifiable Education Department data and feeding it into artificial intelligence software to analyze the agency's spending. Agency leaders had directed staffers to turn the data over to the DOGE personnel, according to the Post. Senate Democrats have asked the Education Department for a detailed accounting of what it shared. According to Warren's letter, the agency said it was helping Musk's team to "identify possible efficiencies" in federal contracts related to student aid. But Warren accused the agency of being "evasive" about DOGE's use of its financial management system, or FMS, and a student aid database known as PartnerConnect. "Alarmingly, the Department also disclosed that the one 'employee's access to the FMS and Partner Connect systems has since been revoked,' raising questions about what happened and why the employee was no longer allowed to view the data," Warren wrote. Unions and other groups have filed a barrage of lawsuits as DOGE and Trump's Office of Personnel Management pursue sweeping cuts across the federal government, including a funding freeze, grant cancellations and mass firings. The concern revolves not just around layoffs but DOGE's use of data and whether the privacy of workers, retirees and borrowers could be violated. Trump's Treasury Department was also sued for granting Musk's team access to the systems that handle Social Security and Medicare disbursements and federal contractor payments. A judge in that case recently extended an order blocking DOGE from accessing the systems. "There is a realistic danger that confidential financial information will be disclosed," the judge wrote.

DOGE Access to US Intelligence Secrets Poses a National Security Threat, Democrats Say

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from Elon Musk about whether staffers at his Department of Government Efficiency have shared national security secrets over insecure communication channels. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia were joined by several other Democrats on a letter Thursday that asserts that reckless actions by Musk and Republican President Donald Trump's cost-cutting initiative present a threat to national security by exposing secrets about America's defense and intelligence agencies. Such information would present huge advantages to U.S. adversaries by giving them critical information about Washington's defense priorities and the resources assigned to various missions and objectives, the lawmakers said. Without going through the normal security procedures, staffers hired by Musk have gained access to a variety of sensitive government databases that contain private information about many Americans and their businesses, along with employment and operational information used by the government. In many cases that includes classified information, such as the precise number of employees working for various intelligence agencies. According to the letter, DOGE staffers in recent weeks have used unauthorized servers and unknown artificial intelligence programs to analyze and store the data, and shared the information over unsecure channels, raising the risk that a foreign nation, criminal group or inside threat could gain access or misuse the material. The lawmakers also noted that despite assurances the DOGE website will not reveal information from intelligence agencies, material from the National Reconnaissance Office was easily found, the lawmakers said. They expressed concerns that DOGE may be cutting spending and personnel without understanding the national security implications until it is too late. They pointed to a recent incident in which the government tried to bring back workers it had fired who worked on nuclear weapon programs. "DOGE employees do not appear to fully understand much of the information to which they have been given unfettered access and given the cavalier and incompetent ways that they have handled this data, these individuals represent a clear threat to national security and the nation's economy," the lawmakers wrote. In their letter, the Democrats demanded information about DOGE staffing and security protocols and how the data has been used, and potentially misused, since DOGE began operations earlier this year. Musk and Trump have defended DOGE's work, saying it's led to billions in savings. DOGE and the White House did not immediately respond Thursday to questions seeking comment about the lawmakers' letter. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

DOGE's grab of personal data stokes privacy and security fears

Associates of Elon Musk have sought unfettered access to information that is typically guarded very closely. Deputies of Elon Musk have sought access to massive amounts of information across the federal government, much of it personal and highly revelatory in its insights into the lives of everyday Americans. They justify their work for the U.S. DOGE Service as a dogged quest for government efficiency. But people with deep knowledge of federal data systems and cybersecurity say they're skirting guardrails meant to protect sensitive data from misuse. Before DOGE launched, most of the records at issue were kept in the hands of a select few officials to preserve privacy and avoid crossing legal red lines. Now Musk's group is seeking often unfettered access, citing suspicion of fraud and waste. In addition to concerns about exposing private information, some critics fear handing all the data to DOGE could enable bad actors to leak sensitive information to compromise political adversaries, act on personal vendettas or stir up online mobs against opponents. This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen current or former government employees and officials with knowledge of government databases and systems, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Representatives for the White House did not return multiple requests for comment. Skip to end of carousel Trump presidency Follow live updates on the Trump administration. We're tracking Trump's progress on campaign promises, his picks for key roles and legal challenges to his executive orders and actions. End of carousel Musk presides over DOGE from a command center in a room of the old Secretary of War's suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where rainbow-colored lights emanate from the tower and keyboard of the powerful gaming computer he uses to conduct government business. A "Make America Great Again" hat and a placard reading "D.O.G.E." sit on a large wooden desk, and cords snake across the carpet into a surge protector. Within the White House complex, the WiFi permissions -- meant to bolster security by prompting users to log in frequently -- were recently changed to allow guests to remain logged in for a year, up from seven days, because so many personal devices are newly in use. Already, DOGE associates have been granted access to sensitive material, having targeted federal payment portals and other massive datasets on government expenditures. That included Treasury payment systems, which green-light federal dollars headed out of government accounts, and highly guarded systems at the IRS and Social Security Administration, which include detailed financial and medical information. Last week, the lead engineer for a government text-messaging service resigned over a DOGE ally's request for access to data including personal identifying information about many Americans. DOGE has also posted classified information on its website, sharing the budget and staffing level of the National Reconnaissance Office spy agency. Just allowing Musk and his team to see some records isn't illegal. Because they're designated as "special government employees" and many are senior advisers at Cabinet agencies, they are entitled to much of the access they have sought, and some judges have declined to kick them out while hearing more evidence. But they need a reasonable basis to peruse files and databases, experts said, and a procedure for ensuring precautions are followed. And the people with access must be vetted and trained, said Brad Moss, an attorney representing plaintiffs in one of more than a dozen lawsuits contesting DOGE's handling of data. Limiting entry to sensitive systems guards against any one federal worker gaining too much access, protecting both the data and the overall system, said Terry Lutes, who served as IRS associate chief information officer from 2003 to 2006. Lutes said even the most experienced employees are given only segments of access to the IRS's Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS. DOGE sought access to that system last week, which would have provided the ability to see, and in some cases edit, detailed records -- including bank accounts, payment balances, Social Security and other personal identification numbers and, in some instances, medical information -- for virtually every individual, business and nonprofit in the country. Skip to end of carousel Help us report on the U.S. DOGE Service The Washington Post wants to hear from people affected by U.S. DOGE Service activities at federal agencies. You can contact our reporters by email or Signal encrypted message. Faiz Siddiqui: [email protected] or 513-659-9944⁩ on Signal. Joseph Menn: [email protected] or joemenn.01 on Signal. Jacob Bogage: [email protected] or jacobbogage.87 on Signal. Read more about how to use Signal and other ways to securely contact The Post. End of carousel "If anybody actually understood how all these pieces work together, we'd have to shoot them. They'd be too dangerous," Lutes said. "And I'm only halfway joking." Access to the IDRS, in particular, would pose a massive risk, Lutes said. Entry to the system is so protected "I would have fired anyone who tried to give me access." An agreement between the White House and the Treasury Department limited DOGE to anonymized data, the same visibility that some academic researchers get. Concerns about how Musk's team could use data stretch beyond the IRS and into other agencies that collect information that workers fear could be exploited. One employee of the U.S. Digital Service, the Obama-era White House office that President Donald Trump re-designated the U.S. DOGE Service on his first day in office, started seeing his work differently once Musk took the reins. The person, who was involved in a government program that includes a database of addresses, has been grappling with the implications of work he felt proud of -- which he suddenly fears could be used to go after people for purposes such as immigration enforcement. "Now I feel like a little bit of an enabler," said the person, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. "I feel like I've been a part of creating a trap for people." Clashes over DOGE's requests for access have also prompted resignations. At the Treasury Department, the highest-ranking career official left in late January after a dispute over access to payment systems. Earlier this month, the Social Security Administration's acting commissioner departed after a disagreement over DOGE's attempts to access sensitive data. At the IRS, taxpayers whose information is wrongfully disclosed or even inspected are entitled by law to monetary damages. Social Security employees who violate privacy laws could face stiff fines and jail time. DOGE could use protected personal information at Social Security -- including the world's largest repository of medical information -- to search for improper payments, but it wouldn't amount to much return on investment, according to former senior agency officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. For years, officials there have studied the threshold at which detecting improper payments becomes unprofitable. The agency has repeatedly explored building more robust systems to ferret out over- and underpayments, which accounted for 0.3 percent of the more than $1.3 trillion in payments in the 2024 fiscal year, adding up to roughly $4 billion, according to federal data. But it could cost more than that to track all the money down, the former officials said. The prospect of highly protected information being misused is alarming some people outside government. Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq War veteran who tracks and reports violent right-wing extremists, said he has grown worried for his safety since learning that some of the DOGE members had frequented internet groups popular with criminal hackers or espoused extremist views. After years of letting his guard down, he said, he has gone back to wearing a gun in his own home. "I'm very concerned that the entire federal government is being compromised by people who want to target, harass and maybe even kill me," Goldsmith said. He is a plaintiff in a lawsuit over DOGE's access to personal records that led to a temporary restraining order Monday against the government. Researchers have raised red flags about some of DOGE's team. They include Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old former Musk company intern who posted in channels associated with the Com, a loose network including many young criminals. An online handle he used once solicited an illegal denial-of-service attack. Coristine now has an email address at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is in charge of defending federal agencies and essential private industries from cyberattacks. Coristine didn't respond to emailed requests for comment. Another DOGE worker, Gavin Kliger, who sought access to records at the IRS, has retweeted white nationalist Nick Fuentes and written of being inspired by media criticism from a Holocaust denier. "I am Jewish and any insinuation of support for 'white nationalism' or 'anti-semitism' is false and defamatory," Kliger told The Washington Post. Musk has a track record of violating privacy norms. When he took over X, then known as Twitter, his deputies publicly posted some private communications of former employees, alleging that they were proof of a liberal censorship conspiracy inside Twitter. A group of FBI agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has also sued, arguing that government records showing what they did in those cases could be used for harassment. Moss, their attorney, is trying to stop further dissemination of their names, arguing that any list being compiled would be not to probe wrongdoing but "to dox and expose the identities of federal officials, which would ordinarily be respected." Moss and others say sweeping Washington agencies for data runs afoul of the Privacy Act, the Watergate-era reform law that limits what officials can do with information on Americans, not just federal workers. Searching for fraud, waste and abuse, as well as trying to develop more efficient government systems, could be valid reasons for DOGE to access the data, several lawyers opposing DOGE say. Feeding data into artificial intelligence programs, which The Post and others have reported the Education Department is doing, and is suspected by employees elsewhere, may also be legal if the move involves closely guarded, in-house programs. But such actions increase the chances of inappropriate access, intentional or not, said Alan Butler, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit based in D.C. that advocates for privacy protections. "It's pretty clear they want to use matching type systems to find payments they claim are fraudulent, and matching against datasets or key terms would be anathema to the Privacy Act if done on a whim or without limits," said Butler, whose group is suing DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management claiming privacy and data security violations on behalf of itself and an unnamed federal employee. Among some government technologists, frustration is growing over methods that run counter to how technical assistance was conducted in the past, by establishing relationships and working collaboratively within numerous federal agencies. "We built trust with those orgs by helping them get things done that needed to be done," said the U.S. DOGE Service worker who began when the agency was still the U.S. Digital Service. "Any trust that was built in that way is completely destroyed by DOGE's approach."

What Could DOGE Do With Federal Data?

This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here. When the Department of Government Efficiency stormed the federal government, it had a clear objective -- to remake the government, one must remake the civil service. And in particular, the team of Elon Musk acolytes "focused on accessing the terminals, uncovering the button pushers, and taking control," Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Shane Harris, and I wrote this week in an investigation into the DOGE takeover. Computers, they figured, run the government. DOGE members and new political appointees have sought access to data and IT systems across the government -- at the Treasury Department, IRS, Department of Health and Human Services, and more. Government technologists have speculated that DOGE's next step will be to centralize those data and feed them into AI systems, making bureaucratic processes more efficient while also identifying fraud and waste, or perhaps simply uncovering further targets to dismantle. Musk's team has reportedly already fed Department of Education data into an AI system, and Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer recently appointed to the General Services Administration, has repeatedly spoken with staff about an AI strategy, mentioning using the technology to develop coding agents and analyze federal contracts. No matter DOGE's goal, putting so much information in one place and under the control of a small group of people with little government experience has raised substantial security concerns. As one recently departed federal technology official wrote in draft testimony for lawmakers, which we obtained, "DOGE is one romance scam away from a national security emergency." This Is What Happens When the DOGE Guys Take Over By Michael Scherer, Ashley Parker, Matteo Wong and Shane Harris DOGE and new Trump appointees' access to federal data and computer systems is growing in both breadth and depth. Defense technologies, Americans' sensitive personal and health data, dangerous biological research, and more are in reach. Within at least one agency, USAID, they have achieved "God mode," according to an employee in senior leadership -- meaning Elon Musk's team has "total control over systems that Americans working in conflict zones rely on, the ability to see and manipulate financial systems that have historically awarded tens of billions of dollars, and perhaps much more," Charlie Warzel, Ian Bogost, and I reported this week. With this level of control, the USAID staffer feared, DOGE could terminate federal workers in "a conflict zone like Ukraine, Sudan, or Ethiopia." In the coming weeks, we reported, "the team is expected to enter IT systems at the CDC and Federal Aviation Administration." Just how far Musk and his team can go is uncertain; they face various lawsuits, which have thus far had varying success. The team may be trying to improve the government's inner workings, as is its stated purpose. "But in the offices where the team is reaching internal IT systems," Charlie, Ian, and I wrote, "some are beginning to worry that [Musk] might prefer to destroy" the government, "to take it over, or just to loot its vaults for himself."

DOGE Sparks Surveillance Fear Across the US Government

The US government has increased the use of monitoring tools over the past decade. But President Donald Trump's employee purges are making workers worry about how their data could be abused. This month, Andrew Bernier, a US Army Corps of Engineers researcher and a union leader, says that he has received a barrage of menacing messages from the same anonymous email account. Unfolding like short chapters in a dystopian novel, they have spoken of the genius of Elon Musk, referenced the power of the billionaire's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and foretold the downfall of "corrupt" union bosses. But the most eerie thing about the emails, which Bernier says began arriving after he filed an official charge accusing the Trump administration of violating his union's collective bargaining agreement, is that they included personal details about his life -- some of which he believes might have come from surveillance of his work laptop. The author referenced Bernier's union activities, nickname, job, travel details, and even the green notebook he regularly uses. The most recent email implied that his computer was loaded with spyware. "Andy's crusade, like so many before it, had been doomed from the start," one email stated. "The real tragedy wasn't his failure -- it was his belief that the fight had ever been real." The unsettling messages, which were reviewed by WIRED, are an extreme example of the kinds of encounters that workers across the US government say they have had with technology since President Donald Trump took office. WIRED spoke to current employees at 13 federal agencies for this story who expressed fears about potentially being monitored by software programs, some of which they described as unfamiliar. Others said that routine software updates and notifications, perhaps once readily glossed over, have taken on ominous new meanings. Several reported feeling anxious and hyperaware of the devices and technology around them. At the General Services Administration (GSA), one worker cited a Chrome browser extension called Dynatrace, an existing program for monitoring app performance. Inside the Social Security Administration (SSA), another employee pointed to Splunk, a longstanding tool that's used to alert IT staff to security anomalies like when an unauthorized USB drive is plugged into a laptop. At the US Agency for International Development (USAID), one worker was caught off guard by Google's Gemini AI chatbot, installations of which kicked off days before Trump took office. "Everyone has been talking about whether our laptops are now able to listen to our conversations and track what we do," says a current GSA employee, who like other workers in this story, was granted anonymity because they didn't have authorization to speak and feared retaliation. Dynatrace and Splunk did not respond to requests for comment from WIRED. The workers' accounts come as Musk's DOGE organization is rapidly burrowing into various government agencies and departments, often gaining access to personnel records, logs of financial transactions, and other sensitive information in the process. The efforts are part of the Trump administration's broader plan to terminate thousands of government employees and remake the face of federal agencies. Like many private companies, US federal agencies disclose to staff that they have tools to monitor what workers do on their computers and networks. The US government's capabilities in this area have also expanded over the past decade.