Privacy Advocate Sees 'Mixed Bag' of Orders in DOGE Cases
Court cases on Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to people’s sensitive information are developing precedents that will shape privacy protections in government data sharing, said an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) official at a partly virtual University of Illinois privacy conference Thursday.
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Court orders from the many DOGE cases have so far been a “mixed bag,” said Rebecca Williams, ACLU Privacy and Data Governance Unit senior strategist. Judges have granted temporary restraining orders against DOGE in six cases, but not in six others, she noted.
Williams said the 1974 Privacy Act, a U.S. government privacy statute, needs updating but exactly how to change it is unclear.
“We're seeing in real time a demonstration” that the Privacy Act works best when there are government employees willing to stand in the way of a group like DOGE, she said. Part of the "digital coup of DOGE is that there's been such success at filling not only … the agency leadership, but also various technical teams,” she said. There used to be "all this people-power friction, and it's been successfully sort of steamrolled.”