Democrats and allied media are pushing a hard narrative that Elon Musk and his DOGE review team may have access to sensitive systems at the IRS, creating what they call “privacy concerns.”
In a letter Monday to IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell the lawmakers wrote that the proposal raises “serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda.” (source)
The quote (emphasis mine) attributed to Senator Ron Wyden, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, is more than a little ironic.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified on April 27, 2023, that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020, and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government.
Within that data set, approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches, what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.”
That means more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans were illegal. IG Horowitz also admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have workstation access to conduct these searches of the NSA database; a database which contains the electronic data of every single American, including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason. {GO DEEP}
Suddenly, Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren are concerned about ‘privacy.’
Earlier today, Elon Musk highlighted millions of people “marked in Social Security as “ALIVE” when they are definitely dead – a HUGE problem.”
(Source)
JUST IN: Stephen Miller says foreign fraud rings are setting up fake Social Security numbers and stealing billions of dollars from the United States.
The news comes as Elon Musk’s DOGE is now investigating the Social Security database.
“There’s a massive amount of fraud in… pic.twitter.com/2Qb0R4SYDj
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 17, 2025
DOGE is just targeting YOU, Ms. Warren. YOU and your corrupt cohorts. YOU gave up your privacy when you joined the criminal cartel called the US government.
Yeah, it’s like this. These elected officials that make over $200k a year, they live like college students. 3-5 to an apartment. Now unlike college students, we know their not doing that to save $ for liquor and girls, for they are provided. Oh…um, I’m sorry. Um…that slipped…um , I apologize. But you do exempt yourselves from 702 warrantless FISA checks for national security risks.
I think I got it. The rain, ( code for $ ), falls mainly in the plain, ( code for elected officials and their bureaucrat friends ), in Spain, ( code for D.C. ). I THINK I GOT IT! DOGE away in D.C., Elon!
It all started when Trump tried to have an audit in his first term. Remember he had a box that had a check US citizen?
Would everyone please just STFU, especially the Manchurian Party, about the ILLUSION of data privacy?
Hackers leak 2.7 billion data records with Social Security numbers
August 11, 2024
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-leak-27-billion-data-records-with-social-security-numbers/
Office of Personnel Management data breach
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) experienced a significant data breach in 2015, where sensitive information from approximately 22 million federal personnel records, including background investigations, was compromised. This breach involved the theft of personal details, security clearance information, and even fingerprints, primarily attributed to state-sponsored hackers from China.
So many more here:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/
There’s a mindset, a theme, going around that we should not mind intrusions into our private information because “they” have already intruded into our private data.
Just because it’s Elizabeth Warren squawking about it, doesn’t mean that Musk should have our private data, does it?
He’s not exactly trustworthy either.
This is a question that deserves more than a two-second “debate”.
I understand that Musk is a mixed bag. Insofar as privacy goes, consider he was a cofounder of PayPal.
You entirely missed the point. It’s a “mindset” because it’s a fact.
Far, FAR worse that Musk already HAVE all of our data if they want to simply look for it.
Those 2.7 BILLION records weren’t offered for sale, they were put on a hacker forum for ANYONE to download. You think those aren’t all over the place now?
And there are many past examples on the web site I linked to.
For those who had a security clearance prior to 2015, not just their SSN, but even their fingerprints and background investigations have been leaked.
He’s as trustworthy as any of the bureaucrats that have access to it. I don’t think he needs personal data to track waste anyway.
Lois Lerner ring a bell?
We should indeed be talking about privacy, loud and long. But we should mock all the people who only discovered the issue this week, because they are not interested in a real conversation; they are interested in just enough privacy to hide their own crimes.
I am just SO tired of this topic. The people advancing it obviously aren’t regular visitors to:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/
where I go every day to see what the latest threats are and update software accordingly.
You go to a website everyday that has nothing but hacking threats and computer attacks/viruses, but your tired of everyone else discussing the issue.
May be when it is determined which SS are legitimate everyone could have a personal pin number assigned to their SS#. This would secure their number even the numbers floating around in the dark web. It’s either something like that or just do away with the number system and come up with some other way. In the meantime I shut down/froze all my credit profiles in all three agencies.
I did the same about 7 years ago. Just too many very major hacks into government entities and not just the federal government.
Privacy = not pawing through my underwear drawer
LOL, that’s a great analogy for where some privacy may still exist IF you live alone.
The big question is, where is this money?
Are the Democrats scared that some of this money might be traced back to their bank accounts?
I don’t remember hearing them bray about privacy when Mister maddow at msDNC released PRESIDENT TRUMP’S tax returns
If these are numbers of people on SS that’s more people than we have in the United States .
Am I missing something?
supposedly there are only 340 million Americans … there are a lot more than just 10 million dead people.. There is no excuse for this..
Whatever happed when you are in Public Office you live in a house of glass. What do they have to hide from us?