University of California system students have filed a lawsuit to block Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from gaining access to student information.
The move comes after a federal judge blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury Department data, which included social security numbers and financial data.
"It seems like overreaching to me on the amount of data and the quantity of data," said Ronjon Nag, an adjunct professor at Stanford University.
The UC student government filed a suit against the Department of Education on Friday, accusing the body of illegally sharing the personal financial information of millions of students with Musk and his workers. The suit claims it violated the Federal Privacy Act of 1974.
The students in the suit said they "did not consent to their information being shared with Musk or any DOGE parties.
Nag said he questions why Musk would need such detailed information for a simple cost-saving analysis.
"If you want the name, the loan amount, the income amount, the location amount – it's going to be so defined," he said. "You're going to know who the person is, who they are, and what their dynamics are. And so that's not really required for a cost-cutting exercise."
California
Nag added that the suit is "a fundamental idea in data privacy."
"Has the user given permission to access their data record, and which part of the data record and in what circumstances," he said.
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