Judge: Federal government lawyers ‘barely defend’ giving Elon Musk’s DOGE illegal access to government data
The Office of Personnel Management infringed on the Privacy Act by allowing access to millions of people’s information, according to a federal judge.
A federal judge has ruled that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated federal law by sharing sensitive government data with a Musk-led organization called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Judge Denise Cote found that OPM failed to provide a valid reason for the access and ignored its own cybersecurity practices.
OPM argued that DOGE agents needed access to personal information of tens of millions of federal employees, but a former federal employee stated that previous modernization efforts did not require such extensive data access. The Department of Justice defended OPM's decision, but Cote rejected the argument that the lawsuit was moot due to DOGE's dissolution.
The ruling highlights privacy concerns raised by policy experts and federal workers, who warn that centralized access to government data could pose significant cybersecurity and privacy risks.
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