American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said on Friday federal legislators that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) took control of a series of federal computer systems that store data strictly restricted in accordance with federal laws. In some cases, any deviations in the exploit of data can be not only illegal, says ACLU, but unconstitutional.
Doge agents have infiltrated or accepted control over many federal agencies, which are responsible for managing staff files on almost two million federal employees, as well as offices that provide the government with a wide range of software and IT technologies.
The unauthorized exploit of sensitive or personal data as part of the efforts of the purification of the ideological government of staff can be violation of federal law. . Privacy Act and Federal Act on information security modernization For example, unauthorized access and exploit of government personnel.
In a letter to members of several Congress Supervisory Committees, ACLU lawyers emphasized Doge access to tax systems that support the “majority” of federal payments, which contains details of social insurance benefits, tax returns and remuneration. Citing a wired application from Tuesday, lawyers note that in addition to choke funds for specific agencies or natural persons, this provides access to “Troves of Personal Data”, including “Millions of social insurance numbers, bank accounts, business finances and business finances and finances Personal. “
Advocates write: “Access to – and abuse – that information can harm millions of people. Young engineers, without experience in the field of human resources, government benefits or legal requirements regarding privacy, gained unprecedented supervision over payments for federal employees, social insurance recipients and small businesses – and with it control over these payments. “
ACLU lawyers emphasize that in normal circumstances these systems would be under the control of the career of the civil service with many years of training and experience in managing sensitive data, all of which survived a comprehensive verification process.
The Group also submitted applications for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for registration of the communication of the Doge personnel of the identified personnel, as well as detailed information on all applications that the task group could submit to gain access to confidential and personal data in the Personal Management Office (OPM).
Other files looking for ACLU relate to DOGE plans regarding the implementation of artificial intelligence throughout the entire government, as well as all plans or discussions on how the task group plans to adapt to the litany of federal legal provisions. ).
Wired informed for the first time on Thursday that Doge agents with the General Services Administration, which manages the US government infrastructure, began to press on the rapid implementation of homebrew AI Chatbot called “GSAI”. The source with knowledge of earlier transactions AI GSA tells Wired that the agency has launched a pilot program last autumn, aimed at testing the exploit of Gemini, Chatbot adapted to Google Workplace. Doge quickly determined that Gemini would not provide the level of data desired by the task group.