{"id":1000,"date":"2025-06-25T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2025-07-01T19:18:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T19:18:46","slug":"trump-knocks-down-barriers-around-personal-data-raising-alarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/25\/trump-knocks-down-barriers-around-personal-data-raising-alarm\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump knocks down barriers around personal data, raising alarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is shattering norms around the handling of Americans\u2019 personal \u2014 and sometimes private \u2014 information, dismantling barriers around data<\/a> in the name of government efficiency and rooting out fraud. <\/p>\n

Privacy experts say the moves bring the country closer to a surveillance state, increase the government\u2019s vulnerability to cyberattacks and risk pushing people away from public services. <\/p>\n

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has sought, and nearly always received<\/a>, access to Social Security numbers, addresses, medical histories, tax histories, welfare benefits, bank accounts, immigration statuses and federal employee databases.<\/p>\n

These moves have shattered walls that have long kept data within the agencies that collect it. <\/p>\n

John Ackerly, a former technology policy adviser under former President George W. Bush and founder of data security firm Virtru, said government agencies need to strike a balance in handling data. <\/p>\n

\u201cFoundationally, more information being shared more widely can provide greater insight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBureaucracy shuts down access to information,\u201d he added. \u201cBut that does not mean that there should be unfettered access.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) see the risk of abuse as outweighing any potential gains. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be limiting federal agencies to access data about us only to the extent they need to perform their duties for the American people,\u201d said Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel on surveillance, privacy and technology at the ACLU.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no reason why these data silos need to be broken down,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Despite outrage from Democrats and some pushback from the courts, the Trump administration has charged ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump signed an executive order keeping his promise to eliminate information silos and streamline data collection across all agencies to increase government efficiency and save hard-earned taxpayer dollars,\u201d Taylor Rogers, a White House assistant press secretary, said in a statement. <\/p>\n

Walls drop around data sharing  <\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a> in late March gave agency heads 30 days to rescind or modify guidance that served as a barrier to interagency sharing of nonclassified information. That included federally funded state program data such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and block grants.<\/p>\n

On May 6, the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a> asked states to hand over the data of 42 million people receiving SNAP benefits, including their names, dates of birth, social security numbers and addresses. This request is currently paused amid legal challenges. <\/p>\n

Data sharing has also been a divisive part of Trump\u2019s hard-line immigration agenda. <\/p>\n

On June 13<\/a>, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services handed over personal data of millions of Medicaid enrollees in “sanctuary” states and cities \u2014 including California, Washington state, Illinois and Washington, D.C. \u2014 to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), in a statement at the time, called the move \u201cpotentially unlawful, particularly given numerous headlines highlighting potential improper federal use of personal information and federal actions to target the personal information of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IRS and DHS also struck a deal in April that enables the IRS to share the current addresses of migrants who have been ordered removed from the country within the past 90 days. In May, a judge gave<\/a> the deal a green light. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo summarize, the IRS must disclose limited taxpayer identity information (e.g., the taxpayer\u2019s name and address) to assist another agency in criminal investigations and proceedings, if the agency has satisfied the statutory prerequisites in its written request,\u201d U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich wrote, ruling on a lawsuit filed by four immigration organizations.<\/p>\n

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has also begun to increase its social media surveillance<\/a>, particularly of posts it deems \u201canti-American,\u201d according to The Associated Press<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In another win for the administration, the Supreme Court on June 6<\/a> overturned a lower court injunction that temporarily limited DOGE\u2019s access to highly personal Social Security Administration (SSA) data. The decision was unsigned, decided in a 6-3 split along party lines.<\/p>\n

This overturns decades of precedent on the Privacy Act of 1974, which requires written consent from an individual to share identifiable information. The liberal judges dissented, arguing DOGE failed to justify its need to access SSA data.<\/p>\n

The SSA stores data on social security numbers, bank accounts, retirement benefits, work authorization status, income histories, medical records and more. In 2025, it served 69 million people<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Fears of overreach, cyber vulnerability and declining trust <\/h2>\n

Critics of the Trump administration\u2019s expanded data-sharing say the moves present a range of risks, from government overreach to higher stakes for cyber defense and pushing people away from accessing public services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Noah Chauvin, an assistant law professor at Widener University, said the elimination of data silos will bring an \u201cenormous\u201d amount of information under one umbrella, raising concerns about who can access it, and for what purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the government has unchecked surveillance powers, they inevitably are abused to target people who have disfavorable political views or are otherwise disliked by people holding power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a> reported that Palantir, the data analytics and artificial intelligence firm founded by Alex Karp and Peter Thiel, has been contracted to centralize and organize data, exacerbating concerns about who gets access to these troves of personal information. Palantir issued a rebuttal to these allegations<\/a>, saying it is dedicated to \u201cprivacy and civil liberties.\u201d  <\/p>\n

A single, centralized repository of personal data could also be a gold mine for hackers, either within the country or from adversaries such as China and Russia. In 2023, federal agencies were targeted by roughly 32,000 cyberattacks, according to the Office of Management and Budget<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue ultimately is that the federal government, in plain defense, has to win every time,\u201d said Venzke, of the ACLU. \u201cA hacker, especially with a single centralized database, only needs to win one time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some immigrant rights and privacy experts are also concerned that fears around the privacy of sensitive information will discourage people from using government services or engaging with public officials, whether that means calling the police, seeking health care or filing taxes. <\/p>\n

Cristobal Cavazos, executive director of Immigrant Solidarity DuPage, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said these moves were creating a \u201cframework of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese databases have all your information, right? \u2018We’re watching you. We’re monitoring you. We’re Big Brother,\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The historical practice of keeping sensitive information segregated between federal agencies has also helped encourage civil functions such as tax compliance, according to Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel for the National Security Agency. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons we have fairly high compliance with our tax rules is that people feel that their tax data, their salary, their deductions \u2014 you could learn a lot about someone from their medical deductions, their personal expenses, etc. \u2014 is kept private by the IRS,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf that feeling of privacy and sanctity is eroded, that’s going to hurt tax collections,” Gerstell said. “Could be self-defeating.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ackerly, the former Bush adviser, acknowledges potential privacy abuses but said a rethink is overdue on how data-sharing can help root out fraud, reduce spending and boost efficiency in government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that there needs to be a fresh look at how these agencies are performing services to Americans, and at the end of the day, data is what can help to unpack that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is shattering norms around the handling of Americans\u2019 personal \u2014 and sometimes private \u2014 information, dismantling barriers around data in the name of government efficiency and rooting out fraud. <\/p>\n

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