Elon Musk's access to government data, including sensitive information collected about and from the American public, is a key battlefront in the ongoing legal war over how President Donald Trump has sought to drastically transform the federal bureaucracy. Multiple lawsuits accuse the administration of violating privacy law and other protections in allegedly allowing affiliates of the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to take control of highly restricted government IT systems. Judges have moved swiftly to try to understand what the DOGE affiliates are up to in reaching into the digital infrastructure through which the government carries some of its most fundamental operations. More litigation may be coming, as DOGE affiliates have also set their sights on sensitive data at several other agencies, including the US Agency for International Development; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the major federal health programs. Democratic attorneys general from a dozen states said Thursday that they also planned to add to the pile of lawsuits. It is not clear what kind of vetting Musk’s allies were subjected to before taking the helm of systems that are usually operated by a small group of career federal employees. The Trump administration has not been forthcoming about what limits are being placed on the data’s use, even though the systems are typically covered under federal privacy law. Privacy claims have been the tip of the spear in the legal effort to slow Musk’s unprecedented and highly disruptive march through the federal bureaucracy.