DOGE and Meta, the Scalar Law, and the Privacy Act: A Motion to Defend DOGE in a Class Action Against Musk
“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 complaint alleges. The plaintiffs accuse DOGE of violating the Privacy Act, a 1974 law that determines how the government can collect, use, and store personal information.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group and Mark Lemley, an intellectual property and tech lawyer who dropped Meta from its lawsuit because he objected to what he alleges is the company are all represented by prominent tech industry lawyers.
There’s a high risk that this information could be used to find employees who will likely be terminated based on improper considerations. “There’s medical information, there’s disability information, there’s information about people’s involvement with unions.”
The team behind this most recent lawsuit plans to push even further. Lemley explains that this phase is only focused on obtaining an injunction to stop the law from being broken. The next phase will involve filing a class action lawsuit.
February 11th has been changed. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified President Donald Trump as one of the defendants in the lawsuit. He is not a person who is accused of a crime.
The White House believes they will be vindicated and will continue to fight these battles in court, according to the White House Press Secretary. “The President has every right to exercise his executive authority on behalf of the American people, who gave him a historic mandate to govern on November 5th.”
On the Dearth of OPM Information in the 21st Century: The Case of a U.S. Reply to the Trump Fork in the Road
Increased access to OPM information could create new vulnerabilities for that data, experts fear. The OPM databases were hacked and sensitive information was compromised for more than 20 million people.
OPM is already facing a separate lawsuit from labor groups over the Trump administration’s “fork in the road” offer of deferred resignation, which promised payment that Congress had not yet appropriated. A federal judge has s0 far delayed the deadline for federal workers to opt to take the offer, pending further consideration by the court.
is a policy reporter for The Verge, and she covers Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley. She wrote about antitrust, privacy, and moderation of content at CNBC for 5 years.