White House, Treasury agree to limit DOGE’s access to IRS data amid security concerns: Report

White House officials argued that such access was necessary for DOGE to fulfill its mandate of identifying government inefficiencies.

The Trump White House and Treasury Department officials have agreed to restrict the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal taxpayer data, according to a report by The Washington Post. The decision comes after DOGE requested broad access to sensitive IRS systems, raising concerns over data security and privacy.

As per The Washington Post, Gavin Kliger, a software engineer affiliated with Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative and assigned to the IRS, will now have only read-only access to anonymized tax data. This level of access aligns with that granted to academic researchers and IT professionals working on IRS systems.

Over the weekend, DOGE had sought sweeping access to the IRS’s most sensitive data systems, which would have allowed Kliger to view and, in some cases, modify detailed financial and personal information, including bank accounts, payment balances, Social Security numbers, and even certain medical records. White House officials argued that such access was necessary for DOGE to fulfill its mandate of identifying government inefficiencies. However, IRS officials pushed back, citing the extreme sensitivity of the data in question.

According to The Washington Post, the IRS was prepared to reject DOGE’s request outright, citing the potential risk to millions of taxpayers’ personal information. High-ranking officials, including the IRS commissioner and national taxpayer advocate, do not have access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), the database DOGE was attempting to enter. Even senior officials in the IRS’s chief information office are restricted from accessing this system.

Treasury officials, after reviewing the extent of DOGE’s request, ultimately agreed to a compromise limiting Kliger’s access, The Washington Post reported.

DOGE has also attempted to gain access to other highly sensitive government databases. The agency reportedly sought entry into the Treasury Department’s payment systems, prompting the resignation of the career official overseeing the program, who refused to grant the request. That official was later replaced by a DOGE staffer assigned to Treasury.

Additionally, DOGE has been pursuing access to Social Security Administration (SSA) datasets, which house the world’s largest medical data repository and detailed records of social safety net payments and employment histories. The acting Social Security administrator resigned last week after clashing with DOGE officials over the request, according to The Washington Post.