this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
382 points (99.2% liked)

News

28911 readers
4287 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
rjc@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
jeffw@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
WrenFeathers@lemmy.world
382
House Democrats: DOGE is building a ‘master database’ of Americans’ sensitive information (www.theverge.com)
submitted 3 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Summary

House Democrats allege DOGE, the agency created by Elon Musk to shrink government, is building a “cross-agency master database” of Americans’ sensitive data.

“Mass amounts” of personal information from the IRS, SSA, and voter records were uploaded into USCIS servers. Whistleblowers reported DOGE engineers accessed systems with “backpacks full of laptops,” each linked to different agencies.

This effort “disregards important cybersecurity and privacy considerations.” Rep. Connolly warned it could “violate several privacy laws.”

“Aggregation of data is building a weapon,” said John Davisson of EPIC. “It’s terrifying.”

top 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] johnlogic@sfba.social 74 points 3 days ago (3 children)

@MicroWave

If true, Elon Musk likely violated the Privacy Act of 1974 and should be prosecuted accordingly.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy/_Act/_of/_1974 :

"The Privacy Act prohibits the disclosure of information from a system of records absent of the written consent of the subject individual, unless the disclosure is pursuant to one of twelve statutory exceptions. The Act also provides individuals with a means by which to seek access to and amendment of their records and sets forth various agency record-keeping requirements. Additionally, with people granted the right to review what was documented with their name, they are also able to find out if the 'records have been disclosed' and are also given the right to make corrections."

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

He just gave the orders, someone else actually did the crime. If need be they'll take the hit and later get a pardon or something.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 38 points 3 days ago (1 children)

RICO, from just a few years prior to the aforementioned act, makes it so that the one issuing the orders takes the fall.

[–] everett@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

Good guy Rico.

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago

That's why there was a problem linking Elon to DOGE and government. On paper he is like an advisor iirc, and his minions are some nobodies he met through programs for students at space x and tesla.

[–] boughtmysoul@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

He won’t be. He won’t face one second of incarceration for anything he has ever done.

[–] CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 8 points 3 days ago

Rebuilding the Nazi system of documentation while claiming the legacy of their opponents. Good work everyone. At least egg prices are...

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 days ago

I remember when Republicans would have a meltdown at the suggestion of an aggregated gun database, or a domestic violence database.

[–] b3an@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago (3 children)

When is someone going to DO SOMETHING ABOUT ANY OF THIS? Why does it feel like everyone is just rolling over about everything. Wtf

[–] wanderingmagus@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

If they were doing something about it, they would not be posting about it on social media or talking about it in the news. Unlike a certain SecDef, some people follow OPSEC. Ask your local SRA chapter about OPSEC training for more details. Oh, and volunteer.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago

They did. Democrats passed the budget bill knowing this was happening.

[–] caffinatedone@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

When is someone going to DO SOMETHING ABOUT ANY OF THIS?

Such as?

Democrats don’t have meaningful power at the moment due to that unfortunate last election, so they can make noise to bring attention to things, but not much that they can actually do.

People are protesting and making noise, so that’s a start, but we need more.

Sounding alarms about these sorts of things are good if they get more people pissed off so they get off their butts and start making noise themselves. No one else is going to save us.

…and yes, Dems should do more to slow down and block what they can in congress, but none of the stuff the the doggy folks are doing require legislation. I mean, what they’re doing is illegal in many ways, but nothing is going through congress to enable it. It’s more that the maladministration is just not enforcing the law when it chooses not to and if Dems had a majority in at least one wing of congress, they could at least hold hearings with some (minimal) teeth.

[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's funny that for years, everyone has been so worried about China and Russia hacking into our federal databases and stealing information. Turns out all you needed to do was walk in the front door and nobody will even stop you...

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago

Yay! Elon musk owns my digital identity. He would never do anything like delete it and send me to el salvador. Never.

[–] ModestCrab@lemmy.wtf 27 points 3 days ago

Would explain all the immigration lawyers getting self deport letters.

Flagged user: 2+ contacts with known dei citizens

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Also Democrats: "We're still doing nothing."

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Important to get that shot in. Yeah, this is all the Democrats fault. So make sure you don't vote.

What a great and useful message you've shoehorned in.

[–] piefood@feddit.online 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I didn't see them advocate for not voting. I also never saw them blame the Democrats for this.

I did see them accurately point out that the party that is supposed to be the opposition to this stuff is doing nothing, and I don't see why the Democrats shouldn't be called out for that.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Criticizing them for not arresting Trump and putting up a fight, means they support Trump... somehow.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago

Yes if you change the words in someone's comment, they can say anything you want them to.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

The dems spent 4 years complaining about the parliamentarian and blaming them on why they can’t do anything.

So yeah, gotta get those shots in.

[–] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 days ago

Both can be awful including the controlled opposition I voted for because it was still better than mask-off facism.

Just because its better doesn't mean its good enough.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No shit “House Democrats”. Thanks for informing us.

Taps watch

[–] easily3667@lemmus.org 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is tapping your watch effective?

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 days ago

It’s about as effective as house democrats.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

But as usual, they “can’t” do anything about it.

[–] moitoi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

and an unsecure one, so every nation can hack it.

[–] OhioComrade@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

I would not be surprised if there already was a massive cross agency database on most Americans since the Patriot Act.