Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 1001 posts

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

#81

Post by matwood »

imafish wrote: post #64
mandmandam wrote: post #56

The moment they had physical access to the system, it was necessary to assume this. It's called an 'evil maid' attack, and of all communities this one should have been blowing the whistle. Loudly, repeatedly, and in open defiance of people who argue that this is a storm in a teacup, a non issue, just another MOT, etc. Especially when you look at the background of the Doge team - 'ex' hackers, 'security specialists',…

[flagged]

> Can someone explain to me where the issue lies?

I'm starting to wonder if HN has also been taken over by bots and astroturfers.

Audits require transparency and people who know wtf they are doing. Musk and his team have shown none of either. They have repeatedly talked about what they think they found that was later shown to be false. Instead of correcting course they double down (see the recent story of 8B vs 8M or Musk saying 10s of millions of dead people getting social security, there are many more that come out daily). They have also fought against efforts to increase transparency into what they are doing through a number of ways, either taking down datasets that could be cross checked or moving DOGE under the records act to avoid FOIA until 2032.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/upshot/doge-contracts-mus...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/musk-misreads-social-securit...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/politics/trump-musk-do...

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

#82

Post by bofadeez »

mola wrote: post #74
snickerbockers wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In most rule of law democracies the law is above the president. The civil servants are beholden to the law as passed by the representatives of the people, the chief executive can only give orders as allowed by the law. Granted there will be times of murkiness that require interpretation. But "fuck it I'm the president and everything I say is legal" is not a valid interpretation in any democracy I know of.

This is (merely) an argument to roll back the power of the executive branch. It is what it is.

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

#84

Post by matwood »

FergusArgyll wrote: post #68
riffraff wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

their claims can't be trusted because they fail at basic accounting and reading. Something something malice incompetence. https://twitter.com/electricfutures/status/18918983362081056... > The single biggest ticket item is a DHS contract listed as saving $8 billion. Wow, that's a huge contract! Actually no, it's $8 million. They must have tried to automate scraping the FPDS form and failed.

This is inaccurate. In September 2022, the agency contracting officer mistakenly wrote $8B instead of $8M when logging in the FPDS database. DOGE discovered this error in January 2025, and the agency updated FPDS accordingly.

Except DOGE (at the time of this article) kept their claim of saving $8B and pointed at the old contract to make their stats look better.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/upshot/doge-contracts-mus...

The DOGE website initially included a screenshot from the federal contracting database showing that the contract’s value was $8 million, even as the DOGE site listed $8 billion in savings. On Tuesday night, around the time this article was published, DOGE removed the screenshot that showed the mismatch, but continued to claim $8 billion in savings. It added a link to the original, outdated version of the contract worth $8 billion.

Trustworthy and transparent. I guess fixing a typo is worth $8B?

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

#85

Post by maxden »

scarab92 wrote: post #46
unsnap_biceps wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USAID was funding the StarLink deployment in Ukraine and was reexamining the deal[1], likely to try to negotiate a cheaper plan or to reduce the funding. My opinion is that it likely hit his ego a bit and it was a really sweet deal for StarLink, so losing out on it would suck. [1] https://www.newsweek.com/usaid-elon-musk-starlink-probe-ukra...

[flagged]

It may not be the monetary amount but the message it sends.

Mess with me and Ill shut you down.

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

#86

Post by leet0rz »

snickerbockers wrote: post #48

So how is this any different from all the random employees who might have access to this data as part of their jobs? I would understand if there was this sort of scrutiny over every federal employee but as it stands I never know who has access to my data and if they can be trusted.

It is not, it's the same there are just different people viewing your private information, probably more corrupt who banks all that money to themselves now instead of it going to whoever it was going to previously.

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

#88

Post by MathMonkeyMan »

cgcrob wrote: post #2

Having access to the data scares me less than the utter ineptitude demonstrated in presenting “findings”. Findings in quotes because if I used that level of analytical rigour I’d be instantly fired, probably out of a cannon into the sun.

It's as if that's not what it's about at all.

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

#89

Post by Martinussen »

scarab92 wrote: post #46
unsnap_biceps wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USAID was funding the StarLink deployment in Ukraine and was reexamining the deal[1], likely to try to negotiate a cheaper plan or to reduce the funding. My opinion is that it likely hit his ego a bit and it was a really sweet deal for StarLink, so losing out on it would suck. [1] https://www.newsweek.com/usaid-elon-musk-starlink-probe-ukra...

[flagged]

Calling a guy a pedophile repeatedly because you made yourself look stupid getting excited about your cool submarine and how awesome everyone will think you are when you save some kids wasn't really worth much money either. I don't think Musk has the self-control to think like that, honestly.

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

#90

Post by InDubioProRubio »

jpcom wrote: post #30
drowsspa wrote: post #18

I find it wild that apparently there is no law onto which government workers can cling to refuse these requests. Is it all just based on conventions, goodwill and culture?

Why do you want them to refuse audit requests? There is no upside to hiding egregious government waste other than paying politicians via kickbacks more than what is legally mandated.

Waste is all things i do not understand? And i dont understand all things, because i fired the experts. Thus all is waste. Its running a state, how hard can it be- my cousin was major of a town once.
Post reply on HN