The Trump administration is facing a new lawsuit alleging that it illegally allowed Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access sensitive information on millions of government workers, including disabilities, background check information, and health records. The lawsuit, filed by privacy advocates and labor groups, claims that DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated the Privacy Act of 1974, which protects information maintained by federal agencies.

The lawsuit alleges that DOGE staffers were given access to OPM computer networks that stored sensitive information on government workers, contractors, and job applicants, without a lawful and legitimate need for such access. The groups are asking the US District Court in the Southern District of New York to suspend DOGE staffers' access to the system, prevent them from using any information they allegedly illegally accessed, and order any copies of data unlawfully accessed to be destroyed.

The OPM maintains information on tens of millions of current and former federal employees, contractors, and job applicants, including those in highly sensitive roles, such as Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) workers. The labor groups argue that DOGE lacks the necessary clearances to access this sensitive information and that any exceptions to the Privacy Act, such as for law enforcement purposes, are not applicable in this case.

Government workers have expressed skepticism that the inexperienced DOGE staffers could have made it through the typically arduous clearance process to access sensitive information in the few weeks since Trump took office. The lawsuit claims that the workers "reasonably fear harmful consequences of the disclosure and use" of information accessed by DOGE, citing the Trump administration's history of threatening to fire government employees they view as disloyal.

The lawsuit is just one of several legal challenges to DOGE's infiltration and attempts to dismantle federal agencies. Other lawsuits target the Treasury Department for allowing access to its sensitive payments system, and another seeks to halt the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from being dismantled. While the cases make their way through the courts, Democratic lawmakers have struggled to find ways to slow what several of them have called an illegal coup.

Experts fear that increased access to OPM information could create new vulnerabilities for that data, citing the 2014 breach of OPM databases that resulted in sensitive information on more than 20 million people being compromised. The lawsuit highlights the need for stronger protections for government worker data and raises concerns about the Trump administration's handling of sensitive information.

The lawsuit is the latest development in the ongoing controversy surrounding DOGE's role in the Trump administration. As the legal challenges continue to mount, it remains to be seen how the administration will respond to these allegations and what implications they will have for the future of government data protection.