DOGE’s Use of AI Raises Major Privacy Concerns, Legal Heat

Lawsuits are mounting against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s push to slash government spending, as Washington raises alarms over reports that Musk’s aides are feeding sensitive federal data into artificial intelligence systems to pinpoint budget cuts.

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The Department of Government Efficiency – a Musk-led task force with dubious authority to gut federal agencies – has set its sights on the Department of Education, as Trump pushes sweeping cuts to the agency responsible for federal student aid, public school funding and civil rights enforcement in school systems nationwide. Representatives from DOGE recently began feeding data from the department’s sensitive internal financial systems into AI software accessed through Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service, according to the Washington Post, after gaining access to key systems across federal agencies in early February (see: White House Defends Musk Amid Sensitive Data Access Uproar).

The latest reports surrounding DOGE and its access to sensitive government systems “raise profound questions about how highly confidential data is being used and by whom,” according to Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology. Laird warned that feeding vast amounts of sensitive data – including Social Security numbers and family income – into a general-use AI system poses serious security risks, with no evidence that such practices are safe or trustworthy.

“People who have shared their information with the Department of Education deserve to know it’s being kept safe and secure,” Laird told Information Security Media Group. “It would be bad enough if this was a standalone issue, but we’re seeing DOGE running roughshod over privacy and data protections everywhere we look.”

Trump’s plans to slash the federal workforce and cut government spending have hit legal roadblocks, as Democratic state attorneys general and labor unions argue DOGE’s access to critical systems endangers Americans’ sensitive data. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered DOGE employees temporarily barred from Treasury Department systems amid a lawsuit led by 19 attorneys general challenging their access.

The administration’s efforts to paralyze agencies such as USAID also have been blocked after a federal employees’ union lawsuit called the move to gut the nation’s top foreign aid agency “unconstitutional and illegal.”

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it remains unclear whether DOGE employees are continuing to access key data and feeding that information into AI systems. DOGE actions have stalled government hiring, spending and even some cybersecurity initiatives, sending federal data security efforts into chaos, and prompting analysts to warn that the lack of oversight and ongoing leadership purge posts government-wide risks (see: Trump White House: Data Security in Turmoil).

Education Department staffers allowed DOGE employees – some of whom are reportedly between the ages of 19 and 24 and have not passed federal background checks – to access the sensitive data systems, the Post reported. It remains unclear how the task force intends to use the AI software to target government spending, though Trump and Musk have vowed to slash all federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs.