Natalie Alms reports: The Department of Government Efficiency is building a single, cross-agency database of sensitive information from the IRS, Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies, according to new, whistleblower-informed oversight on Capitol Hill. The effort is “unprecedented,” said a Thursday letter the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability…
Implied Consent to Privacy Policy in Webpage Footer Forecloses Website Wiretapping Claim
Wentao Yang, Matthew Verdin & Kathryn Cahoy of Covington and Burling write: Does a plaintiff’s use of a website constitute consent to a privacy policy linked in the website’s footer? A Pennsylvania federal court answered yes in Popa v. Harriet Carter Gifts, Inc., 2025 WL 896938 (W.D. Pa. Mar. 24, 2025), granting summary judgment in favor…
DOGE is building a master database to surveil and track immigrants
Makena Kelly Vittoria Elliott Operatives from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are building a master database at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that could track and surveil undocumented immigrants, two sources with direct knowledge tell WIRED. DOGE is knitting together immigration databases from across DHS and uploading data from outside agencies including the Social Security…
State Privacy Regulators Announce Formation of Privacy ‘Supergroup’
Lauren N. Watson of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. The concept of the “supergroup” may have originated with rock and roll, but on April 16, 2025, privacy practitioners in the United States learned that a whole new type of supergroup has been formed. Far from being a reboot of Cream or the Traveling…