CDT and The Leadership Conference Release New Analysis of DOGE, Government Data, and Privacy Trends

Six weeks ago, we shared CDT’s initial analysis of two lawsuits that alleged violations of long-standing privacy protections of federal administrative data as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seeks, and has often been granted, access to very sensitive information about individuals. Since then, 14 lawsuits have been filed that allege violations of six privacy statutes across eight federal agencies. 

Given the rapidly evolving situation, we worked alongside The Leadership Conference’s Center for Civil Rights and Technology to create a fact sheet that analyzes some of the core issues related to DOGE’s efforts to access and use sensitive information held by federal agencies. This new resource, which we will continue to update as there are new developments, details:

• The federal privacy protections in play,
• Reported DOGE security incidents,
• Examples of the types of sensitive data potentially accessed, and
• The impacts of DOGE’s reported use of AI on government data.

The first step to ensuring that sensitive data provided to the federal government by tax filers, student loan borrowers, Social Security recipients, and other individuals is not only accessed legally, but is also safeguarded and used responsibly, is greater understanding of and visibility into what DOGE is doing.

Read the fact sheet.
[Last updated March 17, 2025]