As Elon Musk's government efficiency division facilitated cuts across the federal government, its central purpose has remained silent: Get personal, sensitive data from millions of Americans. But among critics and legal challengers, the issue of data access to Doge has become crucial.

Musk, the world's wealthiest man and Donald Trump's biggest campaign donor, has already made Doge a move forward as a technology to reduce the federal deficit. The key to his efforts is a small auxiliary, the most prominent young people with a background in technology, dispatched in government agencies, and require access to databases that are usually only applicable to a small number of regulated and trained employees in each agency.

The issue has stimulated at least 11 lawsuits that claim Doge illegally accessed a large number of American personal information. All violations of Doge's violation of the Privacy Act of 1974 after the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon's resignation, which largely stipulates what information can be stored and accessible to federal agencies of U.S. citizens Information about this information.

Litigation and privacy claims have quickly become substantial challenges of the campaign and their ability to function fully, and represent critics’ attempts to reduce Doge’s actions in some cases at least temporarily.

In the education department, the plaintiff said that student information was collected through student loan applications. In the Treasury Department, the plaintiff claimed that the system visited by North revealed private tax information for Americans. (NBC News has confirmed that IRS Doge employees are expected to seek access to the agency’s integrated data retrieval system, which agent employees use to access taxpayer accounts).

Another lawsuit alleges Doge and the Office of Personnel Management, similar to the federal government’s Department of Human Resources, visited not only personal information and background checks for people working for the largest employer in the United States, but also applied for people who just applied for government work. The plaintiff said in the Labor Department that road workers require full access, including sensitive documents on workplace health and safety issues, from black lungs to the identity of workers who filed complaints, and so on. (Records seen by NBC News show that the Department of Labor authorized employees to use software to remotely transfer large file sets.)

In addition to those legal claims, Doge also attempts to obtain or obtain access to personal data that people are sensitive to from at least three other agencies. According to two sources familiar with the situation, Michelle King, the top Social Security Agency official, left work this weekend, including Americans’ names and financial records, including individuals, after denied a goalkeeper’s request for access, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Identity Information (PII).

Earlier this month, employees at the U.S. International Development Agency were sent administrative leave after trying to prevent employees from accessing confidential systems and security permit information from their employees. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Doge has been authorized to access federal emergency management agency data, including sensitive information about disaster victims.

Critics say Doge access to this data poses serious risks to Americans.

Plaintiff Kristofer Goldsmith is part of a lawsuit against Doge that allegedly visits information about Americans held by the U.S. Treasury, OPM and Department of Education, he wrote in his explanation that the lawsuit claims abuse The potential of American PII is serious and irrevocable.

"The risks are shocking: identity theft, fraud and political goals. Once your data is exposed, it is almost impossible to eliminate damage," Goldsmith wrote.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Democrat Oregon Senator Ron Wyden told NBC News in an emailed statement Friday that Doge's Treasury visit could mean it's for virtually all taxpayers Americans All have internal tax service records.

“We are talking about hundreds of millions of taxpayers and organizations, and it is a crime to abuse this data by unauthorized disclosure or even conducting inspections,” Wyden said.

Neither Musk nor the White House answered email questions about the lawsuit and what steps Doge took, if any, to protect American privacy when accessing data from various agencies. No agency or the Justice Department has been prosecuted to answer questions about these lawsuits.

In some cases, lawsuits against Doge's data access provide rare orders to block its activity. A lawsuit protesting Doge's access to treasury data was obtained by a temporary order to prevent the agency from sharing the information.

But these efforts are limited. Another lawsuit attempted to block Doge from accessing the Department of Education’s National Student Loan Database, which holds information from 42 million Americans—temporarily frozen that access, but on Monday, a judge ordered the resumption of access.

Attorneys in the case told NBC News that one of the lawsuits against OPM filed by the nonprofit Internet rights group was filed by the Electronic Border Foundation, which is a temporary restraining order for Doge next week.

Trump signed his executive order on his first day of office, signing contracts on his mission, ordering agencies to "full and timely access to all unclassified agent records, software systems and IT systems." DOGE is also instructed to “comply with strict data protection standards.”

But Elizabeth Laird, director of Technological Equity Technology, the Center for Citizen Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equity Technology Equ

“These lawsuits not only raise questions about how we can do our best to care for people’s sense of information in 2025, but we’re even meeting the standards set 50 years ago,” she said.

In at least one case, a federal agency erroneously claimed that Doge has access to sensitive data that is greater than the actual limit. The Treasury Department told Congress that Doge only gained "read-only" access to the department's payment system, meaning they can see the data but cannot change the data, which is related to the auditor's receipt.

But this is not strict. In a lawsuit filed by a group of state attorneys generals, Joseph Gioeli, deputy commissioner for transportation and modernization of the Bureau of Finance, said the Treasury gave a doorman employee, Mark Elles ( Marko Elez) Sensitive financial system. On February 6, the agency found that Elez's laptop was wrongly set to allow him to modify secure payment system files, although the agency did not believe he had modified any of the files.

Elez also "may occasionally" give screenshots of payment systems or records, another Doge employee, Gioeli, vowed.

The next day, Elez resigned from a Wall Street Journal report saying he had a history of publishing racism and pro-European people online. Musk quickly said he would rehire Elez. Neither the White House nor the Treasury Department responded to emails asking if Elles had resumed work.