CRS Legal Sidebar – Privacy Act Lawsuits and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) September 17, 2025. On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order reorganizing and renaming the U.S. Digital Service as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Executive Order tasked DOGE with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” By early February, multiple lawsuits had been filed alleging that federal agencies working with DOGE were violating fifty-year-old privacy protections Congress enacted in the Privacy Act of 1974 (Privacy Act or the act). The Privacy Act was enacted in response to earlier innovations to government technology. In the 1950s, federal agencies began using large-scale data processing computers. The technology was considered a powerful tool for managing agency records, while the government’s use of computers and information technology (IT) also raised privacy concerns. From 1966 to 1971, three congressional committees held hearings about the impact of computers and government data storage on personal privacy. Three years later, Congress enacted the Privacy Act to “provide certain safeguards for an individual against an invasion of personal privacy” by a federal agency. In the act, Congress found that “the increasing use of computers and sophisticated information technology . . . magnified the harm to individual privacy” that can result from the collection or dissemination of personal information. Courts are now faced with questions about how the Privacy Act’s protections apply to DOGE’s modernization efforts. A number of groups have filed lawsuits alleging that DOGE has requested access to Social Security numbers, bank account information, and other personal data, and that disclosing this information without first seeking written consent from the affected individuals is an infringement of personal privacy prohibited by the Privacy Act. The groups are seeking court orders that would bar federal agencies from disclosing records to DOGE in violation of the act.This Legal Sidebar provides an analysis of selected lawsuits in which plaintiffs rely on the Privacy Act to prevent disclosure of agency records to DOGE, as well as some related considerations for Congress.