According to a new lawsuit, the Trump administration accessed federal workers’ private information, including social security numbers, unlawfully. This was an attempt to overthrow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
A few months ago, Karoline Leavitt confirmed DOGE has read-only access to employees’ data. This made people wonder how far the access goes and what they may be able to do with the information. CFPB and Trump’s hate towards the agency goes a long way back.
It was created by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Trump wanted to eliminate it from the ground. His reasons were that it was run by bad people and was a waste. After Trump’s statement, Elon Musk, who was working as the head of the DOGE department, posted CFPB RIP as an attack on the agency or what was coming for it.
In no time, the director of the agency had to close up any work-related tasks. Meanwhile, he also directed some members to DOGE for support.
A labor union is now in Trump’s administration and representing federal workers. They are representing several employees across various departments, accusing DOGE of accessing sensitive information that goes against federal law.
Worried about Elon and Doge having your SSN? Relax!
If you don’t know your Social Security number is already leaked, congrats!
You’re the last person on Earth still living in blissful ignorance.
Meanwhile, hackers are throwing a party with 270 million SSNs and your…
— MT (@mtmtmt9999) February 9, 2025
As per the lawsuit, CFPB is responsible for protecting employee data from unlawful disclosure to third parties. There is a 26-page complaint maintaining that DOGE had access to the information despite the laws and regulations.
Vought had given access to DOGE, in which they violated the Privacy Act and internal CFPB regulations. The access gave DOGE information present in the Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which ranges from social security numbers to their pay grades.
According to the federal law, a person must get pre-notice and submit their data to the agency. The lawsuit also says there are not enough reasons for the agency to access sensitive information.
1) The Trump administration just gave a random Silicon Valley CEO — who possess no public office or accountability — access to the Treasury Department’s payments system (and with, your Social Security number) pic.twitter.com/iAmWWQjZxM
— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) February 1, 2025
They did so on sixteen separate occasions, calling it routine use. So far, the administration has not been able to justify giving this access to the department.
Under the Privacy Law Act, CFPB cannot show this information to DOGE unless there is an exception. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon will be handling the lawsuit who is a Bush appointee
