Policies & Analysis

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), and individual government employees have filed a class action lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for sharing personnel databases containing government employees' highly sensitive personal and financial information with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The AFGE and AALJ are labor unions representing government employees and judges that adjudicate at the Social Security Administration, respectively. The individual plaintiffs as well as members of the AFGE and AALJ have entrusted the OPM with their highly sensitive personal information, including Social Security Numbers, home addresses, and disability and health information. The plaintiffs argue that OPM violated the Privacy Act by failing to ask for their consent before sharing their information with another person or agency. The plaintiffs requested that the court find the DOGE data sharing unlawful and prevent further information from being shared with DOGE.