Wired [detailed] an effort at DOGE to fold[the SSA]
database into the DHS [database]
Specifically, mass amounts of personal data harvested
from the IRS, SSA
voting records in Pennsylvania and Florida were recently
uploaded into servers at the US Customs (USCIS)
[within DHS], which processes immigration cases.
[Rep] Connolly cited testimony from SSA whistleblowers
who witnessed DOGE engineers accessing the agency’s
IT system with “backpacks full of laptops,
each with access to different agency systems”,
with the aim of combining them into one database.
Connolly warned that not only would such a database
pose a threat to government cybersecurity
which siloes its information across several agencies
to prevent cyberattacks from accessing all info at once
it was also very likely violating several privacy laws.
Even If we set aside the rampant illegality threading through this initiative, it also feels like a bad pattern you can find in the private sector:
1. Customer reports problem that cannot be validated and probably doesn't exist.
2. Management insists a solution be created.
3. Solution doesn't actually find the problems the customer was reporting.
4. Management, to save face, retroactively changes what the system was supposed to be used for.
In this case, the system will fail to find millions of people committing very serious crimes and then somehow getting away with it for no reason... But to justify its existence, it will instead be used for crap like canceling visas over parking tickets and deporting otherwise-saintly residents.
... Or worse, attacking anybody who says something mean about the government.
>>Or worse, attacking anybody who says something mean about the government.
I think there is only one copy of this data and it is possessed by Musk.
I suspect it was his primary goal to provide him with blackmail power over every person in America - especially wealthy American's who could / would otherwise have the means to stand up to him.
Even If we set aside the rampant illegality threading through this initiative, it also feels like a bad pattern you can find in the private sector:
1. Customer reports problem that cannot be validated and probably doesn't exist.
2. Management insists a solution be created.
3. Solution doesn't actually find the problems the customer was reporting.
4. Management, to save face, retroactively changes what the system was supposed to be used for.
In this case, the system will fail to find millions of people committing very serious crimes and then somehow getting away with it for no reason... But to justify its existence, it will instead be used for crap like canceling visas over parking tickets and deporting otherwise-saintly residents.
... Or worse, attacking anybody who says something mean about the government.
>>Or worse, attacking anybody who says something mean about the government.
I think there is only one copy of this data and it is possessed by Musk.
I suspect it was his primary goal to provide him with blackmail power over every person in America - especially wealthy American's who could / would otherwise have the means to stand up to him.
Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43735872