Oregon Reports 250 DOGE Complaints, Nearly 50 Privacy Complaints in Q1

The Oregon DOJ’s privacy unit received more than 250 complaints about DOGE as of March 31, the department said. In addition, it recorded 47 complaints between January and March under the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act, which took effect July 1 last year. Many of those concerned the government's handling of people's data, the unit said.

“The surge in complaints about DOGE underscores a growing public concern about what Elon Musk and President [Donald] Trump are doing with the private information of millions of Americans,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D) said. Oregon is part of a lawsuit with other states challenging DOGE access to Treasury Department information. “We will continue to do what we can to fight for privacy, and make sure DOGE doesn’t sidestep the law,” Rayfield added.

Oregon’s Q1 privacy enforcement report followed up on a paper released last month about the first six months of enforcement. The privacy unit said then that it had received more than 100 consumer privacy complaints in that time period (see 2503100045).

The privacy unit has received 157 complaints total since the law took effect, including the 47 in Q1, Monday’s report said. “Overall, the DOJ has received the most complaints about social media/technology platforms and data brokers. This quarter, consumers are particularly concerned about how government entities are handling their personal data.”

Nearly 28% of the complaints this quarter were about the government, while about 21% were regarding retail goods or services and 17% related to social media or technology platforms, the Oregon DOJ report said. Data brokers were the subject of about 15% of the complaints, followed by financial services and health care services tied at nearly 13% each. Also, Oregon reported three complaints each for media outlets and insurance in the quarter.

Since July 2024, however, most complaints were about social media and data brokers, with each representing about a quarter of the total number received.

Oregon DOJ is required by law to provide a 30-day right to cure until Jan. 1, the department noted. In Q1, the privacy unit closed 11 cure letter matters, it said.

The privacy unit “continued to send cure letters to companies whose publicly available privacy notices were not compliant with the OCPA, as well as inquiry letters to companies, requesting more information about their privacy practices,” it said. “Inquiry letters are generally sent in response to a consumer complaint. We also sent letters with both cure and inquiry components.”

Matt Schwartz, a Consumer Reports policy analyst, said "47 complaints in a quarter seems significant to me, especially considering it is a new law that many state residents may not even be aware of yet." However, he said it's "too early to make any definitive statements about the law's effectiveness," particularly with a mandatory cure period still in effect.