DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data
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DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/16/doge-irs-access-taxpayer-data/
How do you feel about that?
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Is this the same data the hackers went through a couple of months ago?
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Social Security, maybe?
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My feeling about this is that many of Trump's followers, the very same people who until recently said that government has been interfering far too much in our lives, will find a way to say that it's OK for them to do this because it will stop something terrible from occurring.
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My feeling about this is that many of Trump's followers, the very same people who until recently said that government has been interfering far too much in our lives, will find a way to say that it's OK for them to do this because it will stop something terrible from occurring.
@Doctor-Phibes LIke the majority of Ax's links, that one is paywalled, but yes, I doubt people who support the mission of DOGE will be doing any hand wringing about framings of the forensic accounting that emphasize the government looking at its own data and how that's terrifying. Or maybe there's a better way to articulate the concern here?
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If he didn’t have a daily history of publishing the state’s data, but wrapped in a narrative that is false about half the time, then maybe you’d have a point.
To answer more directly, the concern is privacy.
I’ll ask again- why won’t deidentified data suffice for any analysis he’d have a legitimate reason to perform?
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No. You're talking about many tables from huge distributed databases, each with identifying keys. It's not as simple as you might think.
@Mik said in DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data:
No. You're talking about many tables from huge distributed databases, each with identifying keys. It's not as simple as you might think.
Try putting on your info-sec hat and see if you think the time it would take to de-identify that data is worth it.
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In Trump’s world there are two kinds of people. Those who the law protects but doesn’t necessarily bind, and those who the law binds but doesn’t necessarily protect. Doge is in the first group, career civil service is in the latter.
I want only the latter group to have access to personally-identifiable tax information.
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Of course, the DOGE needs access to personal taxpayer data. How else can President Trump send USD$5000 checks to every one?
President Donald Trump suggested that some savings from his federal cost-cutting effort, overseen by billionaire Elon Musk, could be sent back to US taxpayers, with another portion being used to reduce the national deficit.
and
Trump’s idea has been floated previously by Musk, who was in attendance for the address. Musk responded this week to a post on his social media platform X suggesting that Trump announce a “DOGE Dividend” with a $5,000 tax refund check sent to taxpaying households, saying he would “check with the President.”
