John, the Trump administration is abusing your personal information in ways that endanger our fundamental rights.

Several federal agencies have attempted to create national databases of Americans' private data, violating the law and the Constitution—all to consolidate power under President Trump.

CREW is pushing back against these sinister and illegal efforts. We’re filing lawsuits, public comments and amicus briefs to stop these abuses and protect Americans from government overreach. We’ve outlined all our work below:

CREW is committed to defending our Constitution and stopping Trump from violating Americans’ rights. Help us in this critical fight by chipping in now →

The American people should be able to trust their government with sensitive information—not have to worry that agencies will collect it and abuse access to it.

That’s why Congress passed the Privacy Act in 1974 after the COINTELPRO and Watergate scandals. They limited a state’s ability to share sensitive information with federal agencies and limited data sharing between different federal agencies.

But the Trump administration has repeatedly violated the Privacy Act by compiling state voter files, pooling and repurposing unreliable data from different federal agencies and including it in DHS’s SAVE database.

They’ve taken this one step further, transforming the SAVE database into a tool for mass “voter verification” and potentially eligibility checks for benefits.

These efforts threaten to disenfranchise eligible voters, subject Americans to unwarranted investigations and create unprecedented security risks by placing sensitive, personal information in target-rich systems.

The Trump administration has not earned the public’s trust when it comes to data protection:

• A federal judge found that the IRS violated federal law “approximately 42,695 times” by sharing confidential taxpayer addresses with DHS.
• DHS recently sought access to the Federal Parent Locator Service from the Department of Health and Human Services, which is meant for finding people who owe child support.
• The Treasury Department recently announced plans for a database to consolidate the personal data of every person associated with any financial assistance program supervised by the agency, including emergency rental assistance, homeowners assistance and small business credit.
• HUD recently proposed a rule requiring new applicants and current recipients for housing assistance programs to sign a consent form to use the SAVE database for benefits eligibility checks, which CREW opposed.

But the administration’s most expansive effort to compile Americans' data is its demand for state voter rolls.

Compiling state voter files would violate not just the Privacy Act, but also America’s constitutional framework that gives states the right to administer elections, as well as the National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration’s data consolidation and weaponization efforts are escalating.

On March 31st, Trump signed an executive order requiring states to use the SAVE database, which is notoriously flawed and risks millions of people’s data. All to purge voter rolls.

CREW is fighting back. We filed a lawsuit challenging the illegal national citizenship database. We sued the DOJ for failing to produce records about the collection of confidential voter information from state voter rolls—and won.

Help us keep up this fight for data privacy, transparency and voting rights by donating now to support CREW →

Thank you,