Musk Is Waging an Illegal Assault on Americans' Privacy Rights
Since Trump’s inauguration, unelected billionaire Elon Musk has set in motion the largest data breach in U.S. history. Going from one federal agency to the next, Musk and his loosely defined “Department of Government Efficiency” team have accessed classified information, millions of Americans’ sensitive personal and financial data, and the Treasury Department systems that control everything from Social Security payments to tax refunds.
No single person has ever had this much unfettered access to sensitive data. That person also happens to be the world’s richest man, with a known track record of harassing his critics. This poses huge risks to our civil rights and our democracy, signaling the continued rise of a billionaire-run political agenda shaping our everyday lives.
To make sense of these events, Free Press convened a panel of experts who are meeting this moment with dogged reporting and work to hold Musk accountable.
Confronting Musk’s coup
On Feb. 10, Free Press’ Jenna Ruddock moderated a discussion featuring John Davisson of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Vittoria Elliott of WIRED and Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen. Panelists discussed how Musk's illegal moves defy Congress’ role of drafting legislation and authorizing spending — and are poised to harm all Americans.
Our panelists emphasized the dramatic stakes here, with John Davisson listing the kinds of sensitive information the DOGE team gained access to at the Treasury Department: “Social Security numbers, personal taxpayer identification numbers, personal financial information, taxpayer information, return information, date of birth, address, ZIP code, phone number, email address, marital status, spousal information, information on children, mothers’ maiden names, military service information, employee-identification numbers, health-plan beneficiary numbers, patient ID numbers, file-case ID numbers, medical-health information, mental-health information, workers’ compensation information, disability information and emergency-contact information.”
The sheer scope of the hijacked data may be hard to comprehend, but the danger is immediately clear: “The breach of that data empowers unaccountable people to work all sorts of harms and exert all sorts of pressure … on people that disagree with them politically,” said Davisson.
WIRED’s Vittoria Elliott has reported on Musk since well before he muscled his way into federal power. With that context, she reminded us to take note of the capabilities of his fellow insurgents at DOGE: “Even if these people are extraordinarily technically gifted, which Musk says they are … we don’t know what systems they’re accessing: We are not being given transparency about their roles.”
Lisa Gilbert gave us great insight into the legal actions Public Citizen is taking. “Last Wednesday, we appeared before a federal judge and argued for a temporary restraining order to block Musk and DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department information … The next step is a hearing for the full preliminary injunction. And if we’re successful, it means that they will no longer have access, but also that all the information they’ve shared will be taken back.” It’s inspiring to see such a fierce defense of our civil liberties.
Jenna Ruddock tied the ongoing DOGE coup to Musk’s Twitter takeover and Free Press’ own reporting on his dangerous actions on the platform, where he has rolled back content-moderation policies and reinstated thousands of accounts belonging to neo-Nazis, racists, transphobes and other extremists. “That is all really important context for what they’re trying to do here and what they know the consequences will be,” said Ruddock.
It’s clear that we’re in this dire situation because Elon Musk has always been determined to weaponize our own data against us, profit off of government contracts and control our access to reliable information. Free Press is determined to stop him at every turn, and we strongly encourage you to stay informed and vigilant by watching our webinar right away.
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