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.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) renewed its call for a court to require that the Social Security Administration (SSA) promptly process its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents related to possible privacy violations.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed an amended complaint Tuesday renewing allegations that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is committing the "largest and most consequential data breach" through its access to private information at federal agencies.
President Donald Trump and the Treasury Department asked a federal court Thursday to fully dissolve the preliminary injunction barring Treasury employees from accessing department systems that contain personally identifiable information (PII) or financial information of payees.
A split federal appeals court Wednesday maintained a block on the Department of Government Efficiency's attempts to access the sensitive data of millions of people on Social Security.
District Judge Denise Cote on Monday scheduled a hearing for May 29 at 10 a.m. EST to discuss the American Federation of Government Employees' Friday request for a preliminary inunction against the Office of Personnel Management, which would prevent OPM from disclosing records containing sensitive personal information to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Disclosing such data is a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), AFGE alleged at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said Thursday that DOGE employees' access to sensitive personal data didn't violate the 1974 Privacy Act. The government units presented their arguments in an answer to a complaint from the American Federation of Government Employees as part of a case the union brought against them. They then asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice.
The Privacy Act includes cybersecurity provisions that can be used to hold the Department of Government Efficiency liable for data abuse, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Mario Trujillo said Thursday.
The University of California Student Association dismissed its case against the Department of Education and Education Secretary Linda McMahon concerning the Department of Government Efficiency's access to sensitive information Wednesday. McMahon had filed a motion to dismiss the case April 8 over lack of standing and the association's inability to show irreparable harm (see 2504080051). The student association had sued the Education Department in February in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for its alleged unlawful and continuous disclosure of sensitive information to DOGE (see 2502100074).
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) filed a motion to dismiss a case about DOGE's allegedly illegal seizure of personnel records and payment system data, claiming that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) lacked standing to sue, among other issues.