The Trump administration has systematically fired federal privacy- and security-focused employees since taking office.

Three members of the bipartisan, independent agency, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (which was established by Congress in 2004 “to ensure that the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties”) were fired on January 27, 2025.

The administration has also fired multiple members of the privacy team and employees who oversee Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which is the equivalent of the federal government’s human resources department. The firings were discovered when CNN filed a FOIA request with OPM seeking information about the security clearances of Elon Musk and “anyone from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who has been granted access to sensitive or classified government networks.”

OPM’s response to CNN’s FOIA request, as reported by CNN, was, “Good luck with that they just got rid of the entire privacy team.” In addition to the privacy team and the FOIA response team, the administration fired other members of OPM’s communications staff. Although an OPM official told CNN that the agency did not lay off the entire privacy team, and some of the firings are not effective until April 15, these actions call into question whether OPM can still “ensur[e] the agency’s data privacy practices meet legal requirements and protect the trust of the public” with the sensitive data housed within OPM.

Jonathan Kamens, Information Security Lead at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was also fired. The Associated Press reports that, according to Kamens, sensitive health data of millions of veterans stored on a benefits website is at risk of compromise. Kamens oversaw security for the VA.gov website and was responsible for “securing private health and financial information including bank account numbers and credit card numbers.” According to Kamens, millions use the VA.gov website monthly: “VA.gov has access to a huge number of databases within VA in order to provide all of those benefits and services to veterans, so if that information can’t be kept secure, then all of that information is at risk and could be compromised by a bad actor.” Kamens questioned whether DOGE workers were background-checked to access the data, alleging that “[t]hey’re not confirmed to be trustworthy.”

More recently, 21 DOGE staffers resigned on February 25, 2025, stating that they would not use their “skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services…We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.” According to the joint resignation letter, the staffers (who had previously been part of the U.S. Digital Service, which was assimilated into DOGE after the inauguration) wrote, “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations. However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

Earlier in February, about 40 staffers from the Digital Service had been laid off. The resignation letter claimed that “[t]hese highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services. Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and American’s data less safe.”

The resigning staffers also alleged that they were interviewed by individuals wearing White House visitors’ badges (some of whom would not identify themselves) about their politics after the inauguration. According to the staffers, these individuals appeared to have “limited technical ability,” and the process “created significant security risks.”

Federal employees focused on privacy and security are tasked with ensuring that all of our data is accessed, used, and disclosed lawfully and that our data is protected and secured using established protocols. It is very uncertain at this time whether these laws and protocols are being followed when so many of these employees have been fired. It is crucial to stay abreast of the impacts these firings will have on the protection of our data and to be able to obtain assurances that proper measures are being taken by DOGE employees who have access to the data.