US federal officials sue Musk and DOGE over illegal access to data

More than 100 current and former federal employees have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), accusing them of illegally accessing confidential personnel data without proper verification or authorization. This was reported by TechCrunch.

The lawsuit was filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 103 employees and various government employee unions. The plaintiffs demand that the government's main personnel agency (OPM) restrict DOGE's access to the information.

"OPM Defendants gave DOGE Defendants and DOGE’s agents — many of whom are under the age of 25 and are or were until recently employees of Musk’s private companies — ‘administrative’ access to OPM computer systems, without undergoing any normal, rigorous national-security vetting," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit names Elon Musk, DOGE, OPM, and current OPM Director Charles Ezell as defendants. The plaintiffs claim that DOGE, by gaining access to OPM records, violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits unauthorized access to personal data, including in federal agencies.

The lawsuit claims that DOGE agents were not government employees when they accessed OPM computer networks. It mentions a 19-year-old DOGE employee, Edward Corristin, known online as Big Balls, who was fired from a cybersecurity company after an internal investigation into a data breach during his employment.

The lawsuit also states that DOGE's access to federal employees' data could have negative professional consequences for them, in particular because of Musk and President Trump's threats to fire disloyal employees.