Treasury agrees to block DOGE’s access to personal taxpayer data at IRS
The Washington Post reports:
The Trump White House and Treasury Department officials have agreed to prohibit the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing personal taxpayer data, according to two people familiar with the arrangement, heading off a brewing privacy crisis at the tax agency.
Gavin Kliger, a software engineer with Elon Musk’s DOGE effort assigned to the IRS, will have read-only access to anonymized tax data, the same access granted to academic researchers and IT professionals who work on IRS systems, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the agreement.
DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, over the weekend requested broad access to the most sensitive IRS data systems, which would have given Kliger the ability to see and in some cases edit detailed information — including bank accounts, payment balances, Social Security and other personal identification numbers and, in some instances, medical information — on virtually every individual, business and nonprofit in the country.
White House officials argued that access was necessary to fulfill DOGE’s charge of rooting out government waste. But that information is some of the most heavily guarded data in the federal government. Political officials do not have access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS. The IRS’s commissioner, national taxpayer advocate and even senior officials in the office of the chief information officer do not have IDRS access either.
The IRS was prepared to reject the White House’s request, the people said, on the grounds that allowing DOGE to have the information would put millions of taxpayers’ information at risk. But over the course of the week, Treasury officials recognized the broad nature of DOGE’s request and agreed to limit Kliger’s access, the people said.
Representatives for the White House and Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
DOGE has sought entry to several highly sensitive data systems across the government. The group sought access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems; the career official who was in charge of that program resigned rather than grant the request. He was later replaced by a DOGE staffer on assignment to Treasury.
DOGE is also attempting to gain access to Social Security Administration datasets, which include the world’s largest repository of medical data and years of history on social safety net payments and employment histories. The acting Social Security administrator resigned late last week after clashing with DOGE officials over that request.
The Trump White House and Treasury Department officials have agreed to prohibit the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing personal taxpayer data, according to two people familiar with the arrangement, heading off a brewing privacy crisis at the tax agency.
Gavin Kliger, a software engineer with Elon Musk’s DOGE effort assigned to the IRS, will have read-only access to anonymized tax data, the same access granted to academic researchers and IT professionals who work on IRS systems, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the agreement.
DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, over the weekend requested broad access to the most sensitive IRS data systems, which would have given Kliger the ability to see and in some cases edit detailed information — including bank accounts, payment balances, Social Security and other personal identification numbers and, in some instances, medical information — on virtually every individual, business and nonprofit in the country.
White House officials argued that access was necessary to fulfill DOGE’s charge of rooting out government waste. But that information is some of the most heavily guarded data in the federal government. Political officials do not have access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS. The IRS’s commissioner, national taxpayer advocate and even senior officials in the office of the chief information officer do not have IDRS access either.
The IRS was prepared to reject the White House’s request, the people said, on the grounds that allowing DOGE to have the information would put millions of taxpayers’ information at risk. But over the course of the week, Treasury officials recognized the broad nature of DOGE’s request and agreed to limit Kliger’s access, the people said.
Representatives for the White House and Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
DOGE has sought entry to several highly sensitive data systems across the government. The group sought access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems; the career official who was in charge of that program resigned rather than grant the request. He was later replaced by a DOGE staffer on assignment to Treasury.
DOGE is also attempting to gain access to Social Security Administration datasets, which include the world’s largest repository of medical data and years of history on social safety net payments and employment histories. The acting Social Security administrator resigned late last week after clashing with DOGE officials over that request.
