Privacy officer resigns as DOJ readies voter data for DHS : NPR

Key Points:

• Kilian Kagle, DOJ Civil Rights Division's chief FOIA officer and senior privacy official, recently resigned amid the department's controversial efforts to collect sensitive voter data from states and share it with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
• The DOJ has demanded extensive voter information, including driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, from most states to verify voter list maintenance, leading to lawsuits against over two dozen states that refused to comply; however, federal judges in several states have dismissed these demands citing privacy law violations.
• Despite collecting voter data from 17 states, DOJ has not issued required public notices or privacy assessments, raising legal and security concerns about the handling and sharing of this sensitive information, with experts labeling the collection as potentially unlawful.
• DOJ officials claim the data sharing with DHS is for noncitizen and deceased voter checks and deny its use for immigration enforcement, but ambiguities remain as flagged individuals may be referred to ICE investigations, causing further privacy and civil rights worries.
• Kagle's resignation is part of a broader trend of privacy and FOIA experts leaving federal agencies amid aggressive data collection policies under the Trump administration, reflecting internal concerns over data privacy and government transparency.