Multiple US government departments, including Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs, employ insider threat programs to monitor employee communications and activities. These programs, overseen by a national task force, aim to identify potential risks such as leaks, workplace violence, and the loss of resources. A significant portion of these incidents involve fraud, rather than espionage.
The programs collect and assess employee social media content and analyze metadata like URL visits and file access. At least nine Cabinet-level departments use software like Dtex Intercept, which generates individual risk scores based on anonymized data. While some tools require two-person sign-off for investigations, the broader government policy explicitly states that employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy on government networks.
Sources describe the existing systems as inefficient and overwhelmed with false positives. Expanding surveillance to detect perceived insubordination or disloyalty could drastically increase these false positives. The Trump administration's efforts to create a "reliable, loyal, trustworthy" workforce, coupled with increased surveillance, raises concerns about potential legal challenges and the creation of a climate of distrust.