Ever since Donald Trump came into power, he has been firing up one executive order after another.
One such executive order placed DOGE with USPS, therefore giving Elon Musk and his team access to every government website and data in the name of updation and financial efficiency.
Through this access, DOGE has had his hand in the pie with the private information of all American citizens.
Labor Unions and Privacy advocates, including the Employee Frontier Foundation, have filed a lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management. The lawsuit states that OPM has granted DOGE and its staffers access to all the data and details of private American citizens, thus putting their security and privacy at risk.
The lawsuit states that the data DOGE has its hands on includes health information and background details of several governmental employees. These also include security personnel with the CIA, whose information should remain private and confidential. These details in the hands of an adversary can prove fatal.
Donald Trump has allowed Elon Musk to bring his own staff of extremely young people, including engineers who are used to sifting in and out of west wings on their own accord and are handling super sensitive data without proper training or background checks.
The lawsuit, therefore, demands to shut down DOGE. It is supposedly a government agency. However, none of the members were confirmed by the Senate or Congress, and no one of the staffers underwent any background checks.
DOGE’s unchecked secrecy, access and private influence — bought by political loyalty — is anathema to efficient, effective government.
We’re suing to force it to follow the law or shut down. https://t.co/sQCtXlp5ez
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) February 10, 2025
The lawsuit continues that staffers had the governmental information in their hands even before the government had put the DOGE in effect. This information is probably secured in private laptops and may be moved out of the west wing, too.
The lawsuit also claimed that there had been no security checks for people moving in and out of the white house with sensitive information under the umbrella of DOGE.
Donald Trump’s administration has retaliated with the claims that all the staffers underwent rigorous training and full background and security checks. However, plaintiffs claim that such training and checks are not possible for so many staffers in the short time Trump has been in power.
There’s a reason background checks are mandatory… Trump energy secretary allowed 23-year-old DOGE rep to access IT systems over objections from general counsel | CNN https://t.co/EuVxoQPhen
— Hi I’m Solomon (@solomonmissouri) February 7, 2025
The plaintiffs fear that information accessed by DOGE could be used to target government employees, especially given Trump’s history of threatening firings and enacting policies aimed at removing workers based on political loyalty or gender identity. Experts warn that increasing access to OPM’s databases increases the risk of another security breach, similar to the 2014 hack that compromised data on over 20 million people.
However, Donald Trump and his administration remain positive that they will win the lawsuit in court as they have nothing to hide, yet they have refused to provide important details of training, staffers and background checks to the plaintiff through court.
