The Oregon Department of Justice’s Privacy Unit is reporting a big spike in the first three months of this year in complaints about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Specifically, Oregonians are concerned about how government entities are handling their personal information. As of March 31, 2025, the unit had received more than 250 complaints about DOGE.

“The surge in complaints about DOGE underscores a growing public concern about what Elon Musk and President Trump are doing with the private information of millions of Americans,” Rayfield said. “We filed a lawsuit related to this and have been successful so far in court, with a judge blocking DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department information. We will continue to do what we can to fight for privacy, and make sure DOGE doesn’t sidestep the law.”

In addition to the DOGE complaints, the Privacy Unit received 47 complaints between January and March relating to the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act (OCPA) - the state’s comprehensive consumer privacy law which took effect July 1, 2024. It involves rules for businesses when it comes to collecting customer information and gives more power to consumers over their data. The Privacy Unit released an online toolkit for Oregon families to protect their data, which includes a “how to” guide for making privacy rights requests.

ODOJ issued a Six-Month Enforcement Report, addressing efforts for the first six months of the OCPA. Today the DOJ is announcing the publication of a 2025 Quarter 1 Enforcement Report. This report addresses outreach and enforcement efforts from January 1-March 31, 2025, and identifies broad privacy trends in Oregon. The DOJ plans to continue to issue these reports quarterly, with a longer report published every six months.

On July 1, 2025, the OCPA will also go into effect for nonprofits that meet the threshold numbers set by the statute. To help nonprofits understand their upcoming obligations, the DOJ has issued FAQs for Nonprofits, tailored to address specific questions that nonprofits might face as they bring themselves into compliance. This is in addition to the existing FAQs for Businesses and FAQs for Consumers.

Nonprofits enrich and provide important resources to many different communities, but by their very nature, they also hold data about many Oregon consumers. Bringing nonprofits under the umbrella of the OCPA provides for robust and consistent treatment of Oregonians’ personal data.

“Oregonians deserve to know their personal information is being respected, whether shopping online or donating to cause they care about,” Rayfield said. “We just want to make sure everyone’s protecting the folks who trust them. Privacy’s not optional anymore. It’s part of doing business.”

Additionally, Oregon has joined a bipartisan group of state Attorneys General and the California Privacy Protection Agency to collaborate on the implementation and enforcement of state privacy laws. This Consortium of Privacy Regulators will focus on facilitating discussions of privacy law developments and shared priorities, with an emphasis on consumer protection across jurisdictions.

Source: Oregon Attorney General

E. WHITE