Elon Musk's DOGE Is Now Targeting Every Taxpayer's Personal Data
The Trump administration sent the IRS a memorandum of understanding that would allow DOGE employees to infiltrate IRS programs like the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IRDS, which gives IRS employees access to bank information and personal identification numbers. DOGE also plans to send its own software engineer, Gavin Kliger, to the IRS for 120 days to 'provide engineering assistance and IT modernization consulting.'
The memo requires Kliger to keep tax return information confidential and to destroy the information he collects once his 120 days are up. He is expected to be given access 'imminently,' an unnamed source told CNN.
'The information that the IRS has is incredibly personal,' former internal IRS watchdog Nina Olson told the Post. 'Someone with access to it could use it and make it public in a way, or do something with it, or share it with someone else who shares it with someone else, and your rights get violated.'
While the IRS's systems could certainly use upgrades, allowing private citizens full-fledged access to millions of Americans' sensitive financial information does not seem like the safest or most ethical way of going about it, especially without congressional authorization.
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