Danielle Citrin
Appearances
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
So it was amidst a time in the late 60s where Congress sort of got wind of the fact that agencies had about 7,000 systems of record, so databases. And
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
They got really interested in it because the National Crime Information Center, so the FBI now we think of as the database that shares criminal information between the states, locals, and the feds, had an incredible amount of sensitive information, including arrests that never went anywhere. And that information was being freely shared with employers, with colleges.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
So people were losing life opportunities. And all of this is happening in the backdrop of Watergate, in the backdrop of Hoover's blacklist, which contained files on every single senator and congressman that were gathering personal data on each and every one of us that were being shared across agencies without any safeguards.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
And there was heated agreement across the aisle that we worried that it gave government a lot of power, excessive power that could control us.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
The Privacy Act was once a quite sleepy law in my privacy classes. It's gotten increasing prominence in part because there's been so much compliance with the Privacy Act. Every agency now has to put out notices about having new collections of information and databases. And there's chief privacy officers at every agency. You have to pay attention to it and adhere to its commitments.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
which are to ensure that you don't collect information you shouldn't be collecting for a proper purpose, and that you're not sharing it unless you meet the conditions of the Privacy Act.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
Privacy groups and attorneys are representing employees of the government and individuals whose data is collected in these systems of records that are protected by the Privacy Act. And they're arguing that there's real harm here. They're losing their jobs. They're being fired. Presumably, we need to figure out and discover if the loss of those jobs have to do with being in the databases.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
But we're pretty sure that's probably true. You need to figure out who the employees are so you can fire them. And asserting that the Privacy Act is sacred. And that we honor when you turned over your data and you directly gave it to an agency that it would only be accessed and used and disclosed pursuant to that reason you gave it to them and you trusted the government with that information.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
The Trump administration is arguing that the Doge employees, let's say they're working at the Department of Education, that they have every right to go into these systems of records to check for fraud, waste, and abuse. Simply because they are now employees of the Department of Education? That's right. And it's a fundamental misunderstanding of the Privacy Act.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
that if they worked at the Department of Education, they couldn't get into records that include personal data unless it was part of their job, right? And part of the Privacy Act is really specific about conditions on when, for law enforcement purposes, you can disclose information that's protected by the Privacy Act. And it's only when the head of a law enforcement agency
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
makes a written request, and it's really particularized about what records it wants.
Consider This from NPR
Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
Right. I mean, that's a fundamental question on the minds of every law professor, lawyer, and law student. That even if, you know, a court so orders that Doge employees shouldn't have access to these records and that they should destroy any data that they collected in violation of the Privacy Act, that they may just say, sorry, I'm not going to comply with the court order.
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Over a dozen lawsuits to stop DOGE data access are betting on a 1974 law
And I think at that moment, when that happens, you know, it's really testing our confidence in... democracy and the rule of law.