US Government Fires Top Privacy Experts for Sticking to Rules

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has unceremoniously fired its top two privacy officials over concerns that the department was improperly withholding certain data from the public. According to sources, the decision came after a pair of officers expressed objections to the mislabeling of government records to prevent their release under the Freedom of Information Act. The pair in question were among a group of senior Privacy Officers at Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which falls under the DHS umbrella. The officials had raised concerns that certain data, including information related to immigration enforcement actions, was being improperly withheld from public view. As part of the FOIA process, records are supposed to be made available to the public if they do not contain sensitive or personally identifiable information. However, in this case, CBP had labeled these documents as “sensitive” and refused to release them under FOIA requests. It is worth noting that the decision by CBP to withhold these records has been questioned by several government watchdog groups and experts, who argue that it undermines public transparency and accountability. In response to a request for comment on this matter, DHS declined to provide any further details.