Judge blocks 3 agencies from disclosing troves of sensitive personal data to DOGE
A federal judge on Monday indefinitely blocked the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to troves of sensitive personal data from three federal agencies, the latest roadblock to its efforts to slim down the federal bureaucracy.U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman barred the Department of Education, Department of the Treasury and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing the personal identifying information of about 2 million plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s access to any of the advisory board’s affiliates.
She noted that the Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of personal information collected by the government, citing Congress’s concern at the time that a single bureaucrat or institution could assemble “every detail of our personal lives” in an instant.