According to Wired, a recent Department of Justice court filing admits operatives from the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) may have shared Social Security Administration data with an outside group seeking to overturn election results. The filing, dated January 16, seeks to correct previous testimony and notes that Steve Davis, a high-ranking adviser to Elon Musk, was copied on a March 3, 2025, email containing a password-protected file with names and addresses of about 1,000 people from SSA systems. Meanwhile, Under Armour is investigating a leak of millions of customer records, with 72 million people notified via Have I Been Pwned about exposed data including names, emails, and purchase info. In other news, Microsoft confirmed to Forbes it complies with about 20 law enforcement requests per year for Bitlocker encryption keys, and a researcher found an unsecured database with 149 million login credentials from services like Gmail and Facebook, believed to be stolen by info-stealing malware.
DOGE and the Data Free-for-All
So the DOJ is basically saying, “Oops, our guys might have totally misused America’s most sensitive citizen data, but we’re not sure.” That’s not comforting. The detail about using Cloudflare—a third-party server not approved for SSA data—is a huge red flag. It screams of shadow IT and a complete disregard for protocol. And having Elon Musk’s adviser, Steve Davis, copied on that email? That adds a whole other layer of political and corporate intrigue to a story that’s already about undermining elections. It feels like we’re watching the slow-motion collapse of any meaningful barrier between government data and political operatives. The fact that current SSA workers can’t even access the file to see what was taken is just the icing on this dysfunctional cake.
Microsoft’s Key to Your Castle
Here’s the thing about Microsoft handing out Bitlocker keys: it shouldn’t be a surprise, but it’s a vital reminder. If you let a company hold the key to your encrypted data, they can be compelled to hand it over. That’s just the reality. The Forbes report finding an instance with the FBI in Guam makes it concrete. About 20 requests a year might not sound like a lot, but it establishes the precedent. The most important part of their statement is the caveat: they can’t comply if the key is stored only locally by the user. That’s your takeaway. For true security, you can’t rely on the cloud recovery option, no matter how convenient it seems. It turns your “full disk encryption” into a system where Microsoft—and by extension, the government—holds a spare key under the mat.
The Surveillance State Expands
Look, the other stories this week paint a pretty grim picture of the landscape. ICE allegedly conducting warrantless raids despite court rulings is a direct constitutional challenge. The FAA creating no-fly zones for drones around DHS operations? That’s about controlling the narrative and preventing documentation, plain and simple. It’s about shutting down eyes in the sky. And that massive, open database of 149 million credentials? It’s a stark reminder that the malware economy is thriving, scooping up logins at an industrial scale. When you combine state-level overreach with criminal hacking and corporate data breaches like Under Armour’s, it feels like there’s no safe place for personal information anymore. Your data is a commodity for advertisers, a tool for law enforcement, and a target for criminals. Everyone’s got a use for it except you.
A Glint of Resistance
In all this doom, the story out of Iran is a fascinating counterpoint. With the internet shut down, hijacking the state TV satellite to broadcast an anti-regime message for up to 10 minutes is a stunning act of hacktivism. It’s a raw, powerful example of using technology to fight back against oppression and reach people when all other channels are closed. It won’t change the overall trend, but it’s a reminder that the tools of surveillance and control can sometimes be turned against their masters. For ten minutes, the protesters had the ultimate megaphone. In a week full of stories about privacy being eroded, that one was about seizing a moment of transparency, however brief.
