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DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

theatlantic.com

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Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#531

Post by thrownaway561 »

thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #375
thrownaway561 wrote: post #349

I honestly have not a single idea why there wasn't this type of department before monitoring and auditing everything.

>> I honestly have not a single idea why there wasn't this type of department before monitoring and auditing everything. You mean like the Government Accountability Office? [1] Or the dozens of Inspector Generals at most agencies? [2] [1] https://www.gao.gov/ [2] https://www.oversight.gov/where-report-fraud-waste-abuse-or-... The US federal government has lots of laws, agencies, and procedures to address, investigate…

And they have been doing a bang up job. Bottom line is that this sort of transparency was needed in the last administration.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#532

Post by acdha »

croes wrote: post #394
eecc wrote: post #201

IMHO it's a bit of a shame that the productivity and efficiency gains that computing and cybernetics can bring to complex systems -- including government -- are always tainted and currently championed by anti-social elites that use them to break apart these collective machines. Bureaucracies are a common good, and it should be in everyone's interest to apply state-of-the-art system engineering to make them as valuabl…

The government's system should mainly be secure, relibale and durable. State-of-the-art is seldom all three of them.

That’s just a question of how you define “state-of-the-art”. The term doesn’t preclude secure or reliable - prior to the “move fast and break things” era where adtech dominated the tech industry, those used be considered a requirement.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#533

Post by CyrsBel »

lucasyvas wrote: post #524
thih9 wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The team could then feed this classified information into AI tools, either for training purposes or to mine the data for insights. (Members of DOGE already reportedly have put sensitive data from the Education Department into AI software.) Perhaps it's cheaper to assume everything leaked or will leak soon.

Even if you were to argue AI systems would eventually have a place in government, which they almost certainly would have anyway long term, the sheer carelessness and lack of oversight of its implementation by a private citizen and group of individuals of proven, questionable ethics is enough reason in itself to have to burn the forest down. Thinking of it objectively, almost nobody here can say they would stand for t…

You are correct. And the nonchalant way in which the leaders who are supposed to oversee this thing are treating it is appalling. It will have consequences during mid-terms and beyond. It is clear that some people believe elected office to mean that they are then given authority and rights with which to increase in...being voyeurs rather than visionaries???

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#534

Post by lucasyvas »

CyrsBel wrote: post #530
lucasyvas wrote: post #490

Because there are bigger fish to fry, I think people don’t appreciate the sheer cost of the system rebuild that will be required for security reasons later. There’s absolutely no telling what additional software has been installed alongside existing, or which systems have been modified that would require audit. Purging this will be an absolute fucking nightmare to the American taxpayer. This may turn into one of the…

Yes. Even if DOGE is operating without any ill intent, and I don't think they have ill intent, the possibility of errors alone is massive and they need to slow down. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/17/trum...

I thank you for highlighting that the intent isn’t actually the problem. I do feel the opposite to you but I’m happy you can see the practice itself is not acceptable / is a bad practice.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#535

Post by [deleted] »

lucasyvas wrote: post #490

Because there are bigger fish to fry, I think people don’t appreciate the sheer cost of the system rebuild that will be required for security reasons later. There’s absolutely no telling what additional software has been installed alongside existing, or which systems have been modified that would require audit. Purging this will be an absolute fucking nightmare to the American taxpayer. This may turn into one of the…

[deleted]

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#536

Post by Workaccount2 »

ksynwa wrote: post #3

What's Elon's beef with USAID? I would think he would go after something like food stamps first owing to his libertarian ethos. Maybe he sees USAID as a completely benevolent handout and a waste of money? I cannot begin to understand why.

It's more likely it came from Trump instead of Elon. Trump is an isolationist and has long complained about money being spent abroad rather than at home.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#537

Post by FigurativeVoid »

At my first gig, I had "god" level access to our production database.

All I learned is that nobody should have this level of access unless it is some sort of temporary break glass situation. It is extremely dangerous and even experienced engineers can cause irreparable data loss or some other bad outcome. In our case, some engineer accidentally sent around 10,000 invoices to customers that shouldn't have gotten them.

There are far better data access patterns. In the case of US gov data, I don't see why the DOGE team would need anything more than a read replica to query. It could even be obfuscated in some way to protect citizens' identities.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#538

Post by electrondood »

What is the point of all of this? Reducing federal income taxes? It seems to me that these people are pushing a rope if that's the goal.

For example, USAID is 1% of federal spending, but buys the US a disproportionate amount of soft power and good will for that investment.

Also, why 20-year olds? You'd think a person as resourced as Musk would have access to more capable people. When I was 20 years old I didn't know a thing about the Federal government or all the ways it benefits Americans.

I don't see DOGE solving an actual problem, and even if it did, this is a horribly incompetent way to go about it.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#539

Post by kornork »

pred_ wrote: post #70
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are laws, but you will get fired if you try to follow them, and lawsuits to remedy that take time. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/usaid-sec...

And when you have an executive on one hand stating that only the president and the AG can interpret laws for the executive [0] and that you can't break laws if you're "saving the country" [1], that approach also just doesn't seem too promising. [0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/ensu... Sec. 7 [1] https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1140091792251...

Honest question: who else, internal to the executive branch, and besides the president, should be able to interpret the laws for the executive branch?

By my reading, this is a clarification that if an agency makes a significant policy change or regulation, they ought to run it by the president first.

It doesn't preclude other branches of government from checking this power.

Re: DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

#540

Post by ConfusedDog »

rl3 wrote: post #20
ksynwa wrote: post #3

What's Elon's beef with USAID? I would think he would go after something like food stamps first owing to his libertarian ethos. Maybe he sees USAID as a completely benevolent handout and a waste of money? I cannot begin to understand why.

> What's Elon's beef with USAID? They were investigating Starlink: https://oig.usaid.gov/node/6814

By the look of it, they were investigating how Ukraine use of Starlink provided to them. You make a great journalist. lol.
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