S.T.O.P. Condemns Court Decision Granting DOGE Sweeping Surveillance Power

S.T.O.P. condemns a federal appeals court decision granting DOGE sweeping access to Americans’ sensitive data.

View this email in your browser For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Condemns Court Decision Granting DOGE Sweeping Surveillance Power (New York, NY 8/12/2025) – Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, condemns a federal appeals court decision granting DOGE sweeping access to Americans’ sensitive data stored by the Education Department, Treasury Department, and Office of Personnel Management, including address, employment, student loan, and other personal information. The decision comes after the Supreme Court granted DOGE access to Social Security data in June. S.T.O.P. warned that DOGE has gained unprecedented mass surveillance power, pooling vast troves of federal data. SEE: The New York Times - Appeals Court Allows DOGE Access to Sensitive Data at Several Agencies https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/us/politics/appeals-court-doge-data.html The New York Times - Justices Grant DOGE Access to Social Security Data and Let the Team Shield Records https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/supreme-court-doge-social-security.html “This so-called department is efficient at ruining our democracy and nothing else,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Communications Director Will Owen. “From tracking down protesters to targeting immigrant families, it’s terrifying to think what DOGE and Trump can do with their hands on all this information. This court just got Trump another big step closer to achieving his authoritarian dreams, and everyday Americans will pay the price.” In June, S.T.O.P. condemned the Trump administration’s development of a searchable database to track U.S. citizens, ostensibly to prevent the highly rare issue of voter fraud. Under development by DOGE and DHS, the database is unprecedented in how it centralizes U.S. born and naturalized citizens’ biographical information and where they live, drawing from information from the Social Security Administration and immigration databases. SEE: Press Release - S.T.O.P. Condemns Trump Database Tracking U.S. Citizens https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2025/6/30/stop-condemns-trump-database-tracking-us-citizens?rq=DOGE Gizmodo - Trump Admin Is Building a Searchable Database to Track Citizens https://gizmodo.com/trump-admin-is-building-a-searchable-database-to-track-citizens-2000622110 The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.   -- END -- Copyright © 2025 Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.