{"id":6289,"date":"2025-02-19T03:03:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T03:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gop-privacy-hawks-brush-off-concerns-about-doge-data-dives\/"},"modified":"2025-02-19T03:03:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T03:03:54","slug":"gop-privacy-hawks-brush-off-concerns-about-doge-data-dives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gop-privacy-hawks-brush-off-concerns-about-doge-data-dives\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP privacy hawks brush off concerns about DOGE data dives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some of the Senate\u2019s most notorious GOP privacy hawks are shrugging off moves by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to access Americans\u2019 sensitive taxpayer data.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sharp turn for lawmakers who often carp about intrusions on individual privacy, and just the latest example of how Republicans are willing to forgive an unelected billionaire set on shattering institutional norms.<\/p>\n

In this case, Musk is seeking to give his team the ability to look up personal information on an IRS system that contains broad individual financial records along with information from the Social Security Administration.<\/p>\n

Sen. Josh Hawley<\/a> of Missouri, a frequent critic of Big Tech\u2019s use of Americans’ personal data, said Tuesday night that DOGE employees were required to \u201cfollow all federal laws related to privacy and so forth\u201d and he would be \u201cshocked\u201d if they were skirting those rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assume and expect that they are adhering to whatever the rules are for their level of clearance and their level of government employee and their designation,\u201d Hawley said, adding that he did not know the security clearance status of DOGE\u2019s staff. \u201cSo long as they\u2019re adhering to those, that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

But DOGE\u2019s move to access IRS data has prompted real questions about its lawfulness \u2014 and a legal challenge. Democrats have raised alarm that the Trump administration could be looking to leverage government databases against Americans whose activities they oppose, while a group of organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit that would block Musk and his associates from obtaining information from the tax agency.<\/p>\n

The White House has argued DOGE is simply trying to prevent fraud. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an interview with Fox News, said Musk’s team was working within \u201cguardrails\u201d to modernize \u201can outdated IT system,\u201d and Americans \u201cdon\u2019t have to be concerned about any of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Rand Paul<\/a> of Kentucky, another defender of individual privacy rights and opponent of government surveillance efforts, also appeared like Hawley to be taking the administration at its word that there was nothing out of the ordinary taking place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anybody who looks at government data is bound by rules on privacy \u2014 I don\u2019t know how this would be any different than someone else looking at it,\u201d said Paul in an interview. \u201cAll the rules of privacy still apply. If they\u2019re breaking any rules, they\u2019ll get in trouble, but you have to look at the data to find the problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> conceded that \u201cthere certainly are concerns when it comes to the privacy of personal information,\u201d but also said<\/a>, \u201cI don’t think it’s unusual that a White House or administration \u2026 would have access to these type of records.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Senate Republican, Tommy Tuberville<\/a> of Alabama, cast aside concerns around privacy for the sake of the administration\u2019s ability to \u201cget rid of all the fraud \u2026 instead of worrying about our information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the Senate\u2019s most notorious GOP privacy hawks are shrugging off moves by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to access Americans\u2019 sensitive taxpayer data. It\u2019s a sharp turn for lawmakers who often carp about intrusions on individual privacy, and just the latest example of how Republicans are willing to forgive an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}