More than 100 of the present and former federal workers have sued Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency agency. He also accessed highly sensitive personnel records without proper vetting or approval. This statement is declared by the new federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
On behalf of 103 employees and several government worker unions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other privacy organizations filed the complaint in the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs are requesting that DOGE and its agents be denied access by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government’s primary HR department.
The lawsuit stated
“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 names Elon Musk, DOGE, and OPM. Hence the present OPM director Charles Ezell is a defendant.
The lawsuit alleges that DOGE getting OPM records which broke the Privacy Act. It prohibits improper access to personal data, that also including across federal agencies.
According to the complaint
“The Privacy Act makes it unlawful for OPM Defendants to hand over access to OPM’s millions of personnel records to DOGE Defendants, who lack a lawful and legitimate need for such access,” .“No exception to the Privacy Act covers DOGE Defendants’ access to records held by OPM.”
According to the lawsuit, DOGE’s operatives were not working for the government when they were granted access to OPM computer networks. It targets Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old DOGE employee who allegedly used the internet handle “Big Balls,” for being let go from a cybersecurity company following an internal investigation into data leaks that occurred while he was employed.
The lawsuit also claims that DOGE’s access to federal worker data may have negative professional repercussions for them, pointing out that President Trump and Musk have threatened to dismiss workers who are thought to be disloyal. According to the complaint, employees may also be vulnerable to hacking by criminals and foreign actors if their financial information is made public.
The lawsuit increased the controversy over the DOGE’s access to sensitive government data. The agency begins the institution’s mass layoff and other reforms across the federal government.
This lawsuit focused on getting injunctions to cut off the access and just “phase one”. According to Mark Lemley, one of the lawyers describing the plaintiffs, according to the WIRED report.
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