This DOGE Whistleblower Is Running for Office

"In January, Borges started a new job as the Social Security Administration's chief data officer, overseeing some of the most sensitive data systems in the federal government-including databases containing Social Security numbers, addresses, citizenship status, and benefits records of nearly every American. Or at least that was the job description. Instead, he spent seven months struggling to get basic visibility into the systems he was statutorily responsible for,"

"By this summer, he filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that DOGE had copied and moved sensitive American data to an unsecure cloud environment. Borges was quickly forced to resign. Now, Borges is launching his campaign for Maryland state senator. In his first interview since the campaign began on Tuesday, Borges describes his clashes with DOGE, being sidelined at his own agency, and why he thinks technologists are needed to help steer this new era of government."

"I left SSA in late August, and the next month was very trying, both personally and professionally. There was a lot of congressional interaction. There was some media outreach. We had a lot of documentation to work on. I started to express to various local groups that they should be concerned about data privacy. This is not a partisan issue. It's a nonpartisan issue that your data privacy should be concerning to you and that there's risk involved."

Chuck Borges began the year as the Social Security Administration's chief data officer responsible for databases holding Social Security numbers, addresses, citizenship status, and benefits records for nearly every American. He spent seven months struggling to obtain basic visibility into the systems he was statutorily responsible for and at times learned about Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) activity through press reports rather than internal channels. He filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that DOGE copied and moved sensitive American data to an unsecured cloud. Borges was forced to resign and is now running for Maryland state senate, arguing that technologists are needed in government to protect data privacy.

Read at WIRED