DOGE BROS Act

This bill raises penalties for mishandling people’s personal data held by the federal government. It increases the criminal fines under the Privacy Act from $5,000 to $30,000 for wrongful actions involving records about individuals, aiming to deter misuse of federal records . It also boosts the maximum fine to $750,000 for individuals who unlawfully obtain information from a U.S. government computer system, targeting unauthorized access to federal agencies’ data .

The bill further raises fines for unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information held by the Social Security Administration or Health and Human Services, for wrongful release of taxpayer information, and for wrongful disclosure of census data—though the exact dollar amounts for these increases are not clearly stated in the provided text .

• Who is affected: Federal workers, contractors, or anyone who wrongfully accesses or discloses federal records and data; people whose data is held by agencies like SSA, HHS, IRS, and the Census Bureau benefit from stronger protections .
• What changes: Higher fines for privacy violations and for hacking into federal systems; clearer, tougher consequences meant to reduce data leaks and unauthorized access .
• When: The text provided does not specify an effective date .