Victory! Court Rules OPM Data Disclosure to DOGE Is Unlawful
In a victory for data privacy, a federal court in New York definitively ruled that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated the law when it disclosed millions of federal employee records to DOGE agents. In a summary judgment ruling issued on October 20, 2026, the court found that OPM violated two provisions of the Privacy Act—one restricting disclosure of personal records between…
A federal court in New York has ruled that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated privacy laws when it disclosed millions of federal employee records to DOGE agents. The court found that OPM breached two provisions of the Privacy Act by disclosing personal records between agencies and by failing to protect the security and confidentiality of these records.
OPM has since revoked database access for many DOGE agents, who have already left the government. The court will determine the appropriate remedy in the future. Judge Denise Cote emphasized that OPM's decision to grant DOGE agents access to systems containing personally identifiable information (PII) is unlawful, noting that there is no evidence supporting the claim that modernization was the motive for this decision.
OPM maintains databases containing sensitive information on tens of millions of federal employees, retirees, and job applicants. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), representing unions of federal employees and individual employees, filed the lawsuit against OPM and DOGE, arguing that the data disclosure violated the Privacy Act of 1974.
Written by urgent.news from EFF Deeplinks's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
