DOGE aims to pool federal data, putting personal information at risk

[SharonAnn]

Washington Post. May 7, 2025
By Hannah Natanson, Joseph Menn, Lisa Rein and Rachel Siegel

Economic Policy
DOGE aims to pool federal data, putting personal information at risk
The goal — a centralized system with unprecedented access to data about Social Security, taxes, medical diagnoses and other private information — would create a multitude of vulnerabilities, experts say.

The U.S. DOGE Service is racing to build a single centralized database with vast troves of personal information about millions of U.S. citizens and residents, a campaign that often violates or disregards core privacy and security protections meant to keep such information safe, government workers say.

The team overseen by Elon Musk is collecting data from across the government, sometimes at the urging of low-level aides, according to multiple federal employees and a former DOGE staffer, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The intensifying effort to unify systems into one central hub aims to advance multiple Trump administration priorities, including finding and deporting undocumented immigrants and rooting out fraud in government payments. And it follows a March executive order to eliminate “information silos” as DOGE tries to streamline operations and cut spending.


At several agencies, DOGE officials have sought to merge databases that had long been kept separate, federal workers said. For example, longtime Musk lieutenant Steve Davis told staffers at the Social Security Administration that they would soon start linking various sources of Social Security data for access and analysis, according to a person briefed on the conversations, with a goal of “joining all data across government.” Davis did not respond to a request for comment.

But DOGE has also sometimes removed protections around sensitive information — on Social Security numbers, birth dates, employment history, disability records, medical documentation and more. In one instance, a website for a new visa program wasn’t set up behind a protective virtual private network as would be customary, according to a Department of Homeland Security employee and records obtained by The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/07/doge-government-data-immigration-social-security/

[dchill]

1. What person, who is not a criminal, thinks this is a good idea?

[CousinIT]

2. The potential for identity theft, manipulation and weaponization of all of our most personal data ...

.... is massive.

THIS IS WHY it was kept SEPERATE and PROTECTED in silos and individual enclaves. Now, the goddamned techno-terrorist DOGE idiots have exposed EVERYBODY in the US to to rampant abuse, identity theft, destruction of their lives and livelihoods, etc.

I work in IT, and NONE of this would be acceptable if anyone in any other industry in the US did it. It WAS also absolutely NOT acceptable, particularly in the US government, precisely BECAUSE they have so much sensitive and personal information on everyone here.

Again, this is the most massive data breach, exposure, and exfiltration on Earth, ever.

It will NOT end well for many people.

[vapor2]

3. I have read about this and appears to be a HUGE surveillance

thing by elon and doge and still trying to wrap my head around the consequences. Hope that one day soon, these goons will go to jail (preferably in Libya)