The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told federal legislators on Friday that Elon Musk and his Department of Efficiency of the Government (Doge) have seized control of a number of federal computer systems that are firmly limited under the federal articles of association. In some cases, all deviations in the way in which the data is used can not only be illegal, says the ACLU, but unconstitutional.
DOGE agents have infiltrated or took control of a number of federal agencies responsible for managing personnel files over nearly two million federal employees, as well as offices that provide the government a wide range of software and information technology services.
Unauthorized use of sensitive or personally identifiable data as part of an attempt to purify the government of ideologically non -elinated staff, a Violation of federal law. The Privacy law and the Federal Information Security Modernization Act Strict prohibition, for example, unauthorized access and use of government personnel data.
In a letter to members of various committees of the congress, ACLU lawyers emphasized the access from doge to treasury systems that handle a “majority” of federal payments, including details about social security benefits, tax returns and salaries. Reference to wired Report on TuesdayThe lawyers note that, in addition to suffocating financing to specific agencies or private individuals, this do -up gives ‘Troves of Personal Information’, including ‘millions of SOFI numbers, bank accounts, business finances and personal finances’.
The lawyers write: “Access to – and abuse of – that information can harm millions of people. Young engineers, without experience in human resources, government benefits or legal requirements regarding privacy, have received unprecedented surveillance about payments to federal employees, recipients of social security and small companies – and therefore control over those payments. “
The ACLU lawyers emphasize that these systems would fall under the control of career years under normal circumstances with years of training and experience in managing sensitive data, all of whom have survived an extensive control process.
The group also submitted Freeded Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for the communication data of identified DOG staff, as well as for details of any requests that the Task Force may have made to access sensitive and personal data at the Personnel Management office (Opm ).
Other files looking for the ACLU relate to DOGE plans to deploy artificial intelligence services in the government, as well as plans or discussions about how the Task Force is planning to conform to the litany of federal laws that sensitive financial and medical Secure information, such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Waded Reported on Thursday for the first time That DOGE agents of the General Services Administration, who manages the IT infrastructure of the US government, began to push to quickly use a HomeBrew AI chatbot called “GSAI”. A source with knowledge of GSAs Ai Prior Tessings tells Wired that the agency launched a pilot program last fall to test the use of Gemini, a chatbot adapted for Google Workplace. However, DOGE quickly determined that Gemini would not offer the level of data desired by the Task Force.
