Federal workers are fighting the data access of DOGE

February 12, 2025

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DOGE vs. Musk: AI Copyright Litigation in the Presence of Neo-Nazi Madness, and the Violation of the Privacy Act

“OPM defendants gave DOGE defendants and DOGE’s agents—many of whom are under the age of 25 and are or were until recently employees of Musk’s private companies—‘administrative’ access to OPM computer systems, without undergoing any normal, rigorous national-security vetting,” the complaint alleges. The plaintiffs accuse DOGE of violating the Privacy Act, a 1974 law that determines how the government can collect, use, and store personal information.

The plaintiffs are represented by prominent tech industry lawyers, including counsel from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, as well as Mark Lemley, an intellectual property and tech lawyer who recently dropped Meta as a client in its contentious AI copyright lawsuit because he objected to what he alleges is the company’s embrace of “neo-Nazi madness.”

There is a risk that the information will be used to identify employees who will be terminated, according to Noble. There’s information about the medical, disability, and involvement with unions.

The team behind this most recent lawsuit plans to push even further. Lemley emphasizes that this is just phase one, focusing on getting an injunction to stop the violation of the law. The next phase will include a lawsuit on behalf of federal workers.

Correction on February 11th. An earlier version of the story wrongly said President Donald Trump was one of the defendants. He is not directly named as a defendant.

The White House will continue to fight, and we expect to be vindicated because of it, said the White House Press Secretary. The President has a right to use his powers on behalf of the American people who gave him a historic mandate to govern in November.

Privacy and Freedom for Workplaces: A Case Study of a U.S. Labor Court Judge’s Deferred Resignation

Increased access to OPM information could create new vulnerabilities for that data, experts fear. There were more than 20 million people that were compromised when OPM databases were breached.

OPM is facing a lawsuit from labor groups over the deferred resignation offer, which Congress had not appropriated, and which promised payment. A federal judge postponed the deadline for federal workers to take the offer pending further consideration by the court.

He is a policy reporter for The Verge, covering Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.