58 pointsby simonebrunozzi2 hours ago11 comments
  • afavour2 hours ago
    Not only that, they did it with the intention of overturning elections:

    > The unnamed employees secretly conferred with a political advocacy group about a request to match Social Security data with state voter rolls to "find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States,"

    https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5684185/doge-data-socia...

    • gruez2 hours ago
      >they did it with the intention of overturning elections:

      >[...] to "find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States,"

      The actual election fraud allegations are probably spurious, but regardless we shouldn't be trying imply that intending to overturn elections in cases of fraud is bad in and of itself. The badness comes from inappropriate access to the data, not trying to find evidence of fraud.

      • an hour ago
        undefined
      • tshaddoxan hour ago
        How many allegations of fraud need to be taken to court and dismissed before it’s no longer conceivable that this is a good faith non-partisan search for evidence of fraud?
        • gruezan hour ago
          >The actual election fraud allegations are probably spurious
      • NoMoreNicksLeftan hour ago
        >but regardless we shouldn't be trying imply that intending to overturn elections in cases of fraud is bad in and of itself.
      • afavouran hour ago
        We don't have to examine every situation in the theoretical. We can pay attention to context. These are not good faith actors, they are not seeking the truth.
        • gruezan hour ago
          Right, I'm not trying to argue that the actions in this case are praiseworthy, only that the OP is misidentifying the source of the badness. That's important, because if we establish a pattern of "overturning elections are bad", then that will come back to bite us when there actually is a legitimate reason for overturning elections.
    • xhkkffbfan hour ago
      So is "find evidence of voter fraud" the same as "overturning elections"?

      Or we all so partisan now that we don't care about the evidence or the reality of the fraud?

      • libraryatnightan hour ago
        Your premise requires good faith actors to even merit consideration.
        • xhkkffbfan hour ago
          Let me guess. You're the kind of guy who looks at the videos of unoccupied daycare centers and then trundles out words like 'bad faith" to rationalize ignoring it. Because no one in my tribe would ever do something wrong.
          • relaxing35 minutes ago
            Yeah man. In the broad faith spectrum of humanity, that’s up there with the worst of the bad faith actions, and actors.
          • libraryatnightan hour ago
            Nah I'm a guy who saw man with a greencard dragged out of a home depot parking lot while his wife screamed and cried.
      • techblueberryan hour ago
        Sorry, if I'm so partisan that I don't trust the guy spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars to elect one party to be an impartial jury on voter fraud.

        But yes, yes we should have an impartial jury look for evidence of voter fraud.

  • baggachipzan hour ago
    Here's me being shocked.

    How could anything else possibly have happened? These amateurs (at best) were given unfettered access to everything with no accountability or rules.

  • sidsudan hour ago
    Not surprised - data exfiltration and Tenant Owner Azure access for DOGE officials were previously reported via Whistleblower Aid.

    https://www.eff.org/files/2025/10/06/085-15_ex_o_berulis_4.1...

    "Furthermore, on Monday, April 7, 2025, while my client and my team were preparing this disclosure, someone physically taped a threatening note to Mr. Berulis’ home door with photographs – taken via a drone – of him walking in his neighborhood"

  • downrightmikean hour ago
    What's their bail amount? Needs to be 10x the potential harm
  • josefritzisherean hour ago
    This thread too? The Voldemort rule is so vigoriously enforced.
  • lifetimerubyist2 hours ago
    The real link instead of incomprehensible blogspam.

    https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5684185/doge-data-socia...

  • gtirlonian hour ago
    I'm sure they will face the consequences /s
  • richwater2 hours ago
    The NSA, state and local police departments have been improperly accessing my data for years. The only reason people care about this is because of the (justified) general anger of DOGE. Yet there are far worse offenders, with far more intrusive access.
    • tdb78932 hours ago
      I don't know why you think people aren't complaining about state and local police accessing data. I've seen these complaints a lot (though the state and local data access is a lot less visible, especially with the gutting of local news)
    • happytoexplain2 hours ago
      People care about those other things.
    • NoMoreNicksLeftan hour ago
      Who cares? LinkedIn just locked my account (I don't log in often), and is demanding my driver's license to unlock it. Ostensibly to "protect me from identity theft".

      That's right. They want me to send my identity documents to some third world contractor to protect me from identity theft. Apparently they're doing this with many people... I'm supposed to be worried about the NSA? I'm not a Russian spy, and I'm no drug cartel leader. The cops and NSA don't give a shit about me. Nor DOGE, come to that.

    • lab142 hours ago
      "why do you get mad at me when I do bad things? don't you see others are doing bad things too?! is it because you hate me?"
    • xpean hour ago
      There is a phrase I like: don't fail with abandon. Just because the NSA broke public trust doesn't make it ok for anything like it to happen again.

      This data breach from DOGE is worse in many ways. DOGE employees / contractors are have fewer scruples and guardrails. This data has been used primarily for Trump-and-Company's advantage. All to the detriment of American values, such as being for democracy and reasonable capitalism while standing against authoritarianism and kleptocracy.

      The NSA's bulk metadata collection, while later found to violate FISA and likely unconstitutional, operated under a formal legal architecture: statutory authorization via Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act (from 2006 onward), FISA Court orders renewed approximately every 90 days, and at least nominal congressional oversight — though most members were kept uninformed of the program's scope until 2013.

    • catlover762 hours ago
      [dead]
  • shin_lao2 hours ago
    May be overblown, the IRS accesses this data all the time. Broadly speaking, the government knows your SSN.

    It was also my understanding many DOGE employees were Department of Treasury agents.

    • libraryatnightan hour ago
      ah yes, this admin has been an avalanche of crimes and abuses, but let's keep giving them the benefit of the doubt and making excuses.
      • cap11235an hour ago
        "Its just a prank bro, calm down"
    • thatguy09002 hours ago
      Doge employees were notably also teenage hackers with waived security clearances.