Privacy advocates urge states not to comply with USDA requests for food stamp data
Source: NPR
May 13, 2025 4:54 PM ET
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) makes sweeping demands on states and their contractors for the sensitive, personal data of tens of millions of food assistance recipients, one payment processor has so far signaled it intends to turn over data to the federal agency.
Meanwhile, privacy and civil liberties advocates say the USDA's unprecedented demand for sensitive state data is unlawful, and warn the request through third-party contractors could be a new playbook for the federal government to gain access to data traditionally maintained by states.
The controversy over participant data from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, comes as Republican lawmakers are proposing deep cuts to the program and the ad-hoc Department of Government Efficiency has been amassing data on Americans and residents from various federal agencies for purposes that include immigration enforcement and searching for fraud. Privacy advocates warn the data compiling effort could lead to government surveillance on a scale never seen before.
Last week, an advisor for USDA's Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services sent a letter to states demanding personal data from SNAP applicants and recipients that included, but was not limited to, "names, dates of birth, personal addresses used, and Social Security numbers" going back to Jan. 1, 2020. The letter said the federal agency would request the data through third-party payment processors that contract with states, and would use the data to ensure the integrity of the food assistance program and verify the eligibility of recipients.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/13/nx-s1-5397208/doge-snap-usda-privacy
Link to Protect Democracy STATEMENT - Legal Experts to States and Vendors: Reject Unlawful USDA Data Demands
Link to LETTER (PDF) - https://protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Final-Letter-to-SNAP.pdf
= new reply since forum marked as read
No? Just sit and hope it all blows over?
Okay then. 
link - https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/data-sharing-guidance
and the privacy groups now have a statement out there with recommendations to recipients of it, I expect a suit will be filed shortly. It's probably a matter of determining who all the plaintiffs will be, compiling what statutes are being violated by that request, and where to file the complaint.
(These suits can't and don't happen "instantly" 
)
we'd have to get some media to write something up if a recipient makes a statement or could try checking the press releases for those who got the notices to see if they made any written statements. Some may have told them to "Go pound sand" but we wouldn't know unless it is broadcast somehow or put in print. In a number of cases, those entities use social media including the loathed "Xitter" to make their thoughts/responses known, but people on DU seem to avoid that.
The absence of such doesn't mean they haven't done it.
Some may have told them to "Go pound sand" but we wouldn't know unless it is broadcast somehow or put in print.
We need to know this. Not knowing that resistance is going on is why we have so many giving up before we even try to actually stop them. We don't need 'reporters'.
We need people with phones and TikTok accounts. We need people to record themselves resisting. We need to know that this is going on from every corner.
However...
