Image by Sara Cottle, from Unsplash
Senate Democrats Say DOGE Chaos Put Americans’ Data At Risk
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
A new report from Senate Democrats accuses the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of creating unsafe working conditions that put Americans’ sensitive data at risk.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Staff used Starlink networks “that could have allowed them to work without being tracked.”
- Whistle-blowers said Social Security numbers were stored on cloud servers “without any verified security controls.”
- Charles Borges, ex-SSA data officer, accused DOGE of risking Americans’ sensitive information.
According to the report, first detailed by The New York Times , DOGE operated out of the General Services Administration building, where the office resembled a makeshift camp. The room contained armed guards, together with children’s toys, windows covered by garbage bags and sleeping areas.
Staff members for Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said DOGE aides sat at desks with “eight or 10 laptops deep,” often using Starlink networks that “could have allowed them to work without being tracked,” as reported by The Times,
The report cites whistle-blowers who alleged that Social Security numbers were placed on cloud servers “without any verified security controls.” The Times says that the report stated that this action created an extreme danger of a major data security breach.
The Social Security Administration received public warnings about these issues from former chief data officer Charles Borges, who had already raised these concerns publicly.
The Times reports that in one case, a former DOGE employee at the Social Security Administration, reportedly inquired about cloud data upload, so that the Department of Homeland Security could access it.
Another whistle-blower said Social Security’s Numident data later appeared at Homeland Security “in a strange format,” suggesting irregular sharing methods.
Despite these claims, the report offered few new examples of security breaches, as reported by The Times. The report showed that Democrats faced difficulties in maintaining control of DOGE operations. Officials often refused to explain what projects DOGE employees were working on, or even confirm who had been assigned to which agencies.
“This report concludes that DOGE is jeopardizing Americans’ most sensitive data, while its employees operate under a layer of secrecy that shields them from meaningful oversight and accountability,” the report’s authors wrote, as noted by The Times.
Image by Caspar Rea, from Unsplash
San Francisco Shuts Down Viral Website That Tracked Parking Cops in Real Time
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
A website designed to help San Francisco drivers dodge parking tickets went viral this week, only to be shut down by city officials within hours of its launch.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- A viral app tracked San Francisco parking cops in near real time.
- The app scraped data from the city’s parking ticket payment portal.
- It showed officer initials, ticket locations, and a fines leaderboard.
The tool, called ‘ Find My Parking Cops ’, was created by software engineer Riley Walz. It worked similarly to Apple’s Find My Friends, but instead of locating people, it tracked parking enforcement officers in near real-time, as first reported by Tom’s Hardware (TH).
The app would retrieve locations of tickets that had just been issued, by extracting data from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) website. The app displayed officer initials together with their current locations and a ranking system, showing which officers had issued the most valuable fines. One officer was shown collecting over $20,000 in a single day, as reported by TechSpot .
Walz posted on X:
I reverse engineered the San Francisco parking ticket system. I can see every ticket seconds after it’s written So I made a website. Find My Friends? AVOID THE PARKING COPS. pic.twitter.com/67MOWVMleF — Riley Walz (@rtwlz) September 23, 2025
They can even write custom notes on the tickets pic.twitter.com/AWqAAXpHWl — Riley Walz (@rtwlz) September 23, 2025
Walz discovered that ticket numbers followed a predictable pattern, usually increasing by 11, except when the last digit was 6, in which case the next jump was 4. The system had a security flaw which let him carry out automatic citation scraping operations for thousands of cases, as noted by TechSpot.
The website obtained rapid popularity because it received more than 50,000 visitors during its first few hours of operation, reported TechSport. On the app, users could see fines for street cleaning, hill-parking violations, expired meters, and more, reported 404Media .
But the city reacted swiftly. At 2:34 p.m. Tuesday, the SFMTA altered its website to block access, making parking citations invisible to the public, reported the San Francisco Standard . “When our staff’s safety, and personal information of people who have received parking citations, is at risk, we must act on that swiftly,” an SFMTA spokesperson said, as reported by TechSport.
Walz insists he isn’t “pro or anti parking cop,” but wanted to expose how predictable city systems are, as reported by SF Standard. While he briefly found a workaround, the app has since been unstable, as noted by 404Media.
