--- title: "Trump Gives Elon Musk Access to All Unclassified Data in the US Government" description: "A new executive order appears to grant DOGE leader Elon Musk sweeping access to unclassified data held by US government agencies." date: "2025-01-25" modified: "2025-01-25" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-data-us-government" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "doge" - "elon musk" - "the digest" - "trump" --- # Trump Gives Elon Musk Access to All Unclassified Data in the US Government ![A new executive order appears to grant DOGE leader Elon Musk sweeping access to unclassified data held by US government agencies.]() *\Image: Shawn Thew / Pool via Getty / Futurism\* ## Bait and Switch The fine print of a sweeping executive order seemingly grants Elon Musk — the wealthiest and arguably most powerful unelected figure in the world — and his associates at the somehow-still-real Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to all unclassified data held by US government agencies, [according to *Wired*]()*.* Since the evening of his inauguration, president Donald Trump has been busy signing a still-growing wave of sweeping [executive actions](). Among them was [the establishment of the unfortunately-named DOGE](), which per the order will be tasked with "modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity." When DOGE was announced late last year, it was widely believed that the "department" would operate as a federal advisory committee, a type of consultative group subject to fairly strict transparency rules. But as flagged by *Wired*, under the executive order, the Trump Administration didn't create a new federal advisory committee. It instead repurposed the United States Digital Service (USDS), an existing government organization with sweeping access to vast caches of data across government agencies, including the sensitive information of US citizens, as the "United States DOGE Service" — a move that seemingly opens the door for Musk and his operatives to access a massive amount of data without much transparency oversight. "It's quite a clever way of integrating DOGE into the federal government that I think will work," George Washington University law professor Richard Pierce told *Wired*, "in the sense of giving it a platform for surveillance and recommendations." ## Inside Out A former USDS employee told *Wired* that the rebranding of the organization was an "A+ bureaucratic jiu-jitsu move" — and warned of dystopian, surveillance-driven outcomes that access to USDS-held data could foster. "Is this technical talent going to be pointed toward using data from the federal government to track down opponents?" they told *Wired.* "To track down particular populations of interest to this administration for the purposes of either targeting them or singling them out or whatever it might end up being?" (That in mind: [reporting from *NextGov* this week revealed that]() USDS workers are already being re-interviewed for their jobs, in part to gauge their perceived loyalty to the new president.) As *Wired* notes, DOGE could still face some headaches regarding the complexities of inter-agency information sharing and the accessing of certain sensitive data, particularly in cases where department members lack certain clearances. Even so, according to experts, our federal government is wading into muddy, unknown waters. "It could be a bipartisan effort to make government technology work better. It could be an oligarch extracting resources from the government," University of Michigan public policy Don Moynihan told *Wired*. "We just really don't know." **More on DOGE:** [*DOGE.gov Website Launches With Mangled, AI-Generated American Flag*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()