From the Washington Post:
The U.S. DOGE Service is racing to build a single centralized database with vast troves of personal information about millions of U.S. citizens and residents, a campaign that often violates or disregards core privacy and security protections meant to keep such information safe, government workers say. ...
At several agencies, DOGE officials have sought to merge databases that had long been kept separate, federal workers said. For example, longtime Musk lieutenant Steve Davis told staffers at the Social Security Administration that they would soon start linking various sources of Social Security data for access and analysis, according to a person briefed on the conversations, with a goal of “joining all data across government.” ...
But DOGE has also sometimes removed protections around sensitive information — on Social Security numbers, birth dates, employment history, disability records, medical documentation and more. ...
“Separation and segmentation is one of the core principles in sound cybersecurity,” said Charles Henderson of security company Coalfire. “Putting all your eggs in one basket means I don’t need to go hunting for them — I can just steal the basket.” ...
The current administration and DOGE are bypassing many normal data-sharing processes, according to staffers across 10 federal agencies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. For instance, many agencies are no longer creating records of who accessed or changed information while granting some individuals broader authority over computer systems. DOGE staffers can add new accounts and disable automated tracking logs at several Cabinet departments, employees said. Officials who objected were fired, placed on leave or sidelined. .
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6 comments:
Isn’t DOGE’S objective to weed out fraud , waste and abuse? They somehow went to another level and became the fraudsters in obtaining private citizens information for this administration. I’m wondering why this DOGE group are not wearing handcuffs?
Its disturbing that they can turn off the automated tracking logs. I'm having difficulty imagining a legitimate reason for doing that.
I agree. They should all be thrown in prison.
I'm having a difficult time believing that turning off logging is true. Love those 'anonymous sources'
Think about it. Silicon Valley is big into AI. AI needs data, lots and lots of data. What one place has a database of every single citizen, LAPR and more? Do you think copies have not already been made?It is the single largest data breach in the history of computerized data and in the hands of who knows who now. Its Project Insight from Marvel in its infancy.
Silicon Valley sees personal data as an asset to be monetized (or used to effectuate the most profitable end). Basically selling us more stuff. The government collects data for the purpose of administering programs on behalf of the American people. To fairly collect taxes, to provide earned retirement, to enforce securities laws, and pay for medical care. We gave consent for these purposes but not for others.
It's not that the government has more data than the private sector, or even more sensitive data, so I doubt it is of great value to AI. Any app tracking your web activity can infer almost everything the government knows about most of us. This data is of great value, however, if I want to control you. Do what we say or we shut off your access to benefits, or we prosecute/deport you, or leak trade secrets to your competitors. We can find you and control you.
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