#Document Management System for Finance

[alwajeeztech]

Documents Management in ALZERP Cloud ERP Software

In today’s fast-paced business environment, managing and organizing documents effectively is crucial for operational efficiency. ALZERP Cloud ERP Software offers a robust Documents Library or File Storage feature, designed to streamline document management and ensure your business remains agile, compliant, and efficient. This article delves into the comprehensive capabilities of the Documents…

[littlebellesmama]

Why Germany Is Still Struggling with Digitalization – A Real-Life Look from Finance

Working in Germany, especially in a field like Finance, often feels like stepping into a strange paradox. On one hand, you’re in one of the most advanced economies in the world—known for its precision, engineering, and efficiency. On the other hand, daily tasks can feel like they belong in the 1990s. If you’ve ever had to send invoices to customers who insist they be mailed physically—yes, by…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Fintech bullies stole your kid’s lunch money

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Three companies control the market for school lunch payments. They take as much as 60 cents out of every dollar poor kids' parents put into the system to the tune of $100m/year. They're literally stealing poor kids' lunch money.

In its latest report, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau describes this scam in eye-watering, blood-boiling detail:

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_costs-of-electronic-payment-in-k-12-schools-issue-spotlight_2024-07.pdf

The report samples 16.7m K-12 students in 25k schools. It finds that schools are racing to go cashless, with 87% contracting with payment processors to handle cafeteria transactions. Three processors dominate the sector: Myschoolbucks, Schoolcafé, and Linq Connect.

These aren't credit card processors (most students don't have credit cards). Instead, they let kids set up an account, like a prison commissary account, that their families load up with cash. And, as with prison commissary accounts, every time a loved one adds cash to the account, the processor takes a giant whack out of them with junk fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

If you're the parent of a kid who is eligible for a reduced-price lunch (that is, if you are poor), then about 60% of the money you put into your kid's account is gobbled up by these payment processors in service charges.

It's expensive to be poor, and this is no exception. If your kid doesn't qualify for the lunch subsidy, you're only paying about 8% in service charges (which is still triple the rate charged by credit card companies for payment processing).

The disparity is down to how these charges are calculated. The payment processors charge a flat fee for every top-up, and poor families can't afford to minimize these fees by making a single payment at the start of the year or semester. Instead, they pay small sums every payday, meaning they pay the fee twice per month (or even more frequently).

Not only is the sector concentrated into three companies, neither school districts nor parents have any meaningful way to shop around. For school districts, payment processing is usually bundled in with other school services, like student data management and HR data handling. For parents, there's no way to choose a different payment processor – you have to go with the one the school district has chosen.

This is all illegal. The USDA – which provides and regulates – the reduced cost lunch program, bans schools from charging fees to receive its meals. Under USDA regs, schools must allow kids to pay cash, or to top up their accounts with cash at the school, without any fees. The USDA has repeatedly (2014, 2017) published these rules.

Despite this, many schools refuse to handle cash, citing safety and security, and even when schools do accept cash or checks, they often fail to advertise this fact.

The USDA also requires schools to publish the fees charged by processors, but most of the districts in the study violate this requirement. Where schools do publish fees, we see a per-transaction charge of up to $3.25 for an ACH transfer that costs $0.26-0.50, or 4.58% for a debit/credit-card transaction that costs 1.5%. On top of this, many payment processors charge a one-time fee to enroll a student in the program and "convenience fees" to transfer funds between siblings' accounts. They also set maximum fees that make it hard to avoid paying multiple charges through the year.

These are classic junk fees. As Matt Stoller puts it: "'Convenience fees' that aren't convenient and 'service fees' without any service." Another way in which these fit the definition of junk fees: they are calculated at the end of the transaction, and not advertised up front.

Like all junk fee companies, school payment processors make it extremely hard to cancel an automatic recurring payment, and have innumerable hurdles to getting a refund, which takes an age to arrive.

Now, there are many agencies that could have compiled this report (the USDA, for one), and it could just as easily have come from an academic or a journalist. But it didn't – it came from the CFPB, and that matters, because the CFPB has the means, motive and opportunity to do something about this.

The CFPB has emerged as a powerhouse of a regulator, doing things that materially and profoundly benefit average Americans. During the lockdowns, they were the ones who took on scumbag landlords who violated the ban on evictions:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

They went after "Earned Wage Access" programs where your boss colludes with payday lenders to trap you in debt at 300% APR:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

They are forcing the banks to let you move your account (along with all your payment history, stored payees, automatic payments, etc) with one click – and they're standing up a site that will analyze your account data and tell you which bank will give you the best deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

They're going after "buy now, pay later" companies that flout borrower protection rules, making a rogues' gallery of repeat corporate criminals, banning fine-print gotcha clauses, and they're doing it all in the wake of a 7-2 Supreme Court decision that affirmed their power to do so:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

The CFPB can – and will – do something to protect America's poorest parents from having $100m of their kids' lunch money stolen by three giant fintech companies. But whether they'll continue to do so under a Kamala Harris administration is an open question. While Harris has repeatedly talked up the ways that Biden's CFPB, the DOJ Antitrust Division, and FTC have gone after corporate abuses, some of her largest donors are demanding that her administration fire the heads of these agencies and crush their agenda:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to Harris' campaign and PACs that support her by billionaires like Reid Hoffman, who says that FTC Chair Lina Khan is "waging war on American business":

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Some of the richest Democrat donors told the Financial Times that their donations were contingent on Harris firing Khan and that they'd been assured this would happen:

https://archive.is/k7tUY

This would be a disaster – for America, and for Harris's election prospects – and one hopes that Harris and her advisors know it. Writing in his "How Things Work" newsletter today, Hamilton Nolan makes the case that labor unions should publicly declare that they support the FTC, the CFPB and the DOJ's antitrust efforts:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/unions-and-antitrust-are-peanut-butter

Don’t want huge companies and their idiot billionaire bosses to run the world? Break them up, and unionize them. It’s the best program we have.

Perhaps you've heard that antitrust is anti-worker. It's true that antitrust law has been used to attack labor organizing, but that has always been in spite of the letter of the law. Indeed, the legislative history of US antitrust law is Congress repeatedly passing law after law explaining that antitrust "aims at dollars, not men":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

The Democrats need to be more than The Party of Not Trump. To succeed – as a party and as a force for a future for Americans – they have to be the party that defends us – workers, parents, kids and retirees alike – from corporate predation.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[softerseasons]

Juno, out of curiosity, what does an accountant DO? What does it mean to be one? Because I know there's math involved. I've heard it's very boring. But I don't know anything else and I'm curious because you're very good at putting things to words.

Okay first of all, I cannot express just how excited I got when I first saw this message. There is nothing I love more than talking about things I know about, and usually when my career is mentioned I don't get questions so much as immediate "Oh, bless you" and "I could never"s. Which- totally fair! For some people, accounting would be boring as all hell! But for a multitude of reasons, I adore it.

There are multiple types of accounting. The type most people tend to be more familiar with is that done by CPAs- CPAs, or Certified Public Accountants, are those that have done the lengthy and expensive process to be certified to handle other peoples' tax documents and submit taxes in their name, amongst other things. Yawn, taxes, right? Well, the thing with that is that there's a lot of little loopholes that tax accountants have to remain familiar with, because saving their clients a little more here or getting a little more back there can really add up, and can do a lot for people who, say, have enough money to afford to hire someone to do their taxes but not necessarily enough to be going hog wild with. Public accountants can work for large firms or by themselves, and also do things like preparing financial statements for businesses, auditing businesses to ensure all of their financial transactions are true and accurately reported to shareholders and clients, and consulting on how finances can be managed to maximize profit (money in - money out = profit, in very simple terms).

The type of accounting I do is private accounting! That basically just means that I work for a company in their in-house accounting/finance department. Private accounting tends to get split up into several different areas. My company has Payroll, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable.

Payroll handles everyone's paychecks, PTO, ensuring the correct amount of taxes are withheld from individuals per their desires, and so on. Accounts Receivable handles money flow into the company- so when our company sells the product/service, our Accounts Receivable people are the ones who review the work, create the invoices, send the invoices to the clients, remind clients about overdue invoices, receive incoming payments via ACH (Automatic Clearing House- direct bank-to-bank deposits), Wire (Usually used for international transactions), or Check, and prepare statements that show how much revenue we are expected to gain in a period of time, or have gained in a period of time. This requires a lot of interfacing with clients and project managers.

My department is Accounts Payable. Accounts Payable does basically the other side of the coin from what Accounts Receivable does. We work mostly with vendors and our purchasing/receiving departments. We receive invoices from people and companies that have sold us products/services we need in order to make our own products/perform our services, enter them into our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning, a system that integrates the departments in a company together- there are many different ERPs, and most people simply refer to their ERP as "the system" when talking internally to other employees of the same company that they work at, because saying the name of the system is redundant) using a set of codes that automatically places the costs into appropriate groups to be referenced for later financial reports, and run the payment processing to ensure that the vendors are being paid.

To break that down because I know that was a lot of words, here's some things I do in my day-to-day at work:

- Reconciliations, making sure two different statements match up: the most common one is Credit Card reconciliations, ensuring that there are appropriately coded entries in the system that match the payments made on our credit line in our bank.

- Invoice entry: this is basic data entry, for the most part. This can have two different forms, though

- Purchase Order Invoice entry: Invoices that are matched both to the service/product provided from the vendor and the purchase order created by our Purchasing/Receiving department. We ensure that the item, the quantity, and the price all match between our records, the purchase order, and the invoice, before we enter this.

- Hard Coded Invoice entry: Invoices that we enter manually due to there being no Purchase Order for them. This is often recurring services, like cleaning or repairs, that may happen too often or have prices vary too much for Purchase Orders to be practical.

- Cleaning up old purchase orders: sometimes Purchase Orders are put in the system and then never fulfilled. Because this shows on financial statements as being a long-standing open commitment, it looks bad, so we have to periodically research these and find out if the vendor simply didn't send us the invoice, if the order was cancelled, or if something else is going on.

- Forensics! This is my personal favorite part of the job, where someone has massively borked something that is affecting my work, and so I go dig into it, sometimes going back as four or five years in records to find the origin point of the first mistake, and untangling the threads of what happened following that mistake to get us to where we are today. There's an entire field called Forensic Accounting that is basically just doing This but for other companies (it's a subset of auditing, and often is done via the IRS) and that's my dream position to be totally honest. I loooove the dopamine hit i get with solving the mystery and getting praised for doing so faster than anyone else has even begun to realize the problem to start with.

- Balancing Credits/Debits: This is more of a Main Accountant role thing, but the long and short of it is that every business has Assets, Liabilities, and Equity. Liabilities and Equity are what we put into the company/what we owe, and assets are what we have received/what we are owed. Anything that increases Assets or lowers Liabilities or Equity is a Debit. Anything that decreases Assets or raises Liabilities or Equity is a Credit. Every monetary change we process has to include an equal Debit and Credit. This is its own whole lecture, so if you wanna know more about double-entry accounting, let me know, but it's yawnsville for most people.

- Actually cutting checks or initiating bank payments to vendors for amounts we owe them.

- Vendor communication: I'm on the phones and email a lot with vendors who are wondering where their payment is, or why something was short-paid, or if I can change some of their info in our system, and so on and so on. Every job is customer service, unfortunately. I don't love it, but I do a lot less of it in private accounting than I would have to do in public accounting.

- Spreadsheets: I make so many spreadsheets I am a goddamn Excel wizard. I love spreadsheets. This isn't necessarily accounting-specific though, most people in Finance jobs love spreadsheets, or at least use them to make their lives easier. I make them just for fun, because I'm a giant fucking nerd who finds that kind of thing enjoyable lol. So if you ever need a spreadsheet made for anything, hit me up.

As for math, that's a pretty common misconception. While there is math, it is very rarely more complicated than "I paid $3 of the $8 I owe, now I owe $5" for me. There are some formulas you learn in school (Business Administration with a focus in Accounting is what I studied), but they're also pretty standard and rarely include more than like... basic algebra. Which. Thanks @ god because I flunked so hard out of pre-calc in college. I could not have done accounting if it really were all that math heavy.

Aaaand yeah! That's all I've got off the top of my head- if you have any more questions about it, do let me know, I'm happy to ramble on for hours, but I'm cutting it here so I don't start meandering on without direction lol.

[mariacallous]

On February 10, employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received an email asking them to list every contract at the bureau and note whether or not it was “critical” to the agency, as well as whether it contained any DEI components. This email was signed by Scott Langmack, who identified himself as a senior adviser to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Langmack, according to his LinkedIn, already has another job: He’s the chief operating officer of Kukun, a property technology company that is, according to its website, “on a long-term mission to aggregate the hardest to find data.”

As is the case with other DOGE operatives—Tom Krause, for example, is performing the duties of the fiscal assistant secretary at the Treasury while holding down a day job as a software CEO at a company with millions in contracts with the Treasury—this could potentially create a conflict of interest, especially given a specific aspect of his role: According to sources and government documents reviewed by WIRED, Langmack has application-level access to some of the most critical and sensitive systems inside HUD, one of which contains records mapping billions of dollars in expenditures.

Another DOGE operative WIRED has identified is Michael Mirski, who works for TCC Management, a Michigan-based company that owns and operates mobile home parks across the US, and graduated from the Wharton School in 2014. (In a story he wrote for the school’s website, he asserted that the most important thing he learned there was to “Develop the infrastructure to collect data.”) According to the documents, he has write privileges on—meaning he can input overall changes to—a system that controls who has access to HUD systems.

Between them, records reviewed by WIRED show, the DOGE operatives have access to five different HUD systems. According to a HUD source with direct knowledge, this gives the DOGE operatives access to vast troves of data. These range from the individual identities of every single federal public housing voucher holder in the US, along with their financial information, to information on the hospitals, nursing homes, multifamily housing, and senior living facilities that HUD helps finance, as well as data on everything from homelessness rates to environmental and health hazards to federally insured mortgages.

Put together, experts and HUD sources say, all of this could give someone with access unique insight into the US real estate market.

Kukun did not respond to requests for comment about whether Langmack is drawing a salary while working at HUD or how long he will be with the department. A woman who answered the phone at TCC Management headquarters in Michigan but did not identify herself said Mirksi was "on leave until July." In response to a request for comment about Langmack’s access to systems, HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said, “DOGE and HUD are working as a team; to insinuate anything else is false. To further illustrate this unified mission, the secretary established a HUD DOGE taskforce.” In response to specific questions about Mirski’s access to systems and background and qualifications, she said, “We have not—and will not—comment on individual personnel. We are focused on serving the American people and working as one team.”

The property technology, or proptech, market covers a wide range of companies offering products and services meant to, for example, automate tenant-landlord interactions, or expedite the home purchasing process. Kukun focuses on helping homeowners and real estate investors assess the return on investment they’d get from renovating their properties and on predictive analytics that model where property values will rise in the future.

Doing this kind of estimation requires the use of what’s called an automated valuation model (AVM), a machine-learning model that predicts the prices or rents of certain properties. In April 2024, Kukun was one of eight companies selected to receive support from REACH, an accelerator run by the venture capital arm of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Last year NAR agreed to a settlement with Missouri homebuyers, who alleged that realtor fees and certain listing requirements were anticompetitive.

“If you can better predict than others how a certain neighborhood will develop, you can invest in that market,” says Fabian Braesemann, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute. Doing so requires data, access to which can make any machine-learning model more accurate and more monetizable. This is the crux of the potential conflict of interest: While it is unclear how Langmack and Mirski are using or interpreting it in their roles at HUD, what is clear is that they have access to a wide range of sensitive data.

According to employees at HUD who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity, there is currently a six-person DOGE team operating within the department. Four members are HUD employees whose tenures predate the current administration and have been assigned to the group; the others are Mirski and Langmack. The records reviewed by WIRED show that Mirski has been given read and write access to three different HUD systems, as well as read-only access to two more, while Langmack has been given read and write access to two of HUD’s core systems.

A positive, from one source’s perspective, is the fact that the DOGE operatives have been given application-level access to the systems, rather than direct access to the databases themselves. In theory, this means that they can only interact with the data through user interfaces, rather than having direct access to the server, which could allow them to execute queries directly on the database or make unrestricted or irreparable changes. However, this source still sees dangers inherent in granting this level of access.

“There are probably a dozen-plus ways that [application-level] read/write access to WASS or LOCCS could be translated into the entire databases being exfiltrated,” they said. There is no specific reason to think that DOGE operatives have inappropriately moved data—but even the possibility cuts against standard security protocols that HUD sources say are typically in place.

LOCCS, or Line of Credit Control System, is the first system to which both DOGE operatives within HUD, according to the records reviewed by WIRED, have both read and write access. Essentially HUD’s banking system, LOCCS “handles disbursement and cash management for the majority of HUD grant programs,” according to a user guide. Billions of dollars flow through the system every year, funding everything from public housing to disaster relief—such as rebuilding from the recent LA wildfires—to food security programs and rent payments.

The current balance in the LOCCS system, according to a record reviewed by WIRED, is over $100 billion—money Congress has approved for HUD projects but which has yet to be drawn down. Much of this money has been earmarked to cover disaster assistance and community development work, a source at the agency says.

Normally, those who have access to LOCCS require additional processing and approvals to access the system, and most only have “read” access, department employees say.

“Read/write is used for executing contracts and grants on the LOCCS side,” says one person. “It normally has strict banking procedures around doing anything with funds. For instance, you usually need at least two people to approve any decisions—same as you would with bank tellers in a physical bank.”

The second system to which documents indicate both DOGE operatives at HUD have both read and write access is the HUD Central Accounting and Program System (HUDCAPS), an “integrated management system for Section 8 programs under the jurisdiction of the Office of Public and Indian Housing,” according to HUD. (Section 8 is a federal program administered through local housing agencies that provides rental assistance, in the form of vouchers, to millions of lower-income families.) This system was a precursor to LOCCS and is currently being phased out, but it is still being used to process the payment of housing vouchers and contains huge amounts of personal information.

There are currently 2.3 million families in receipt of housing vouchers in the US, according to HUD’s own data, but the HUDCAPS database contains information on significantly more individuals because historical data is retained, says a source familiar with the system. People applying for HUD programs like housing vouchers have to submit sensitive personal information, including medical records and personal narratives.

“People entrust these stories to HUD,” the source says. “It’s not data in these systems, it’s operational trust.”

WASS, or the Web Access Security Subsystem, is the third system to which DOGE has both read and write access, though only Mirski has access to this system according to documents reviewed by WIRED. It’s used to grant permissions to other HUD systems. “Most of the functionality in WASS consists of looking up information stored in various tables to tell the security subsystem who you are, where you can go, and what you can do when you get there,” a user manual says.

“WASS is an application for provisioning rights to most if not all other HUD systems,” says a HUD source familiar with the systems who is shocked by Mirski’s level of access, because normally HUD employees don’t have read access, let alone write access. “WASS is the system for setting permissions for all of the other systems.”

In addition to these three systems, documents show that Mirski has read-only access to two others. One, the Integrated Disbursement and Information System (IDIS), is a nationwide database that tracks all HUD programs underway across the country. (“IDIS has confidential data about hidden locations of domestic violence shelters,” a HUD source says, “so even read access in there is horrible.”) The other is the Financial Assessment of Public Housing (FASS-PH), a database designed to “measure the financial condition of public housing agencies and assess their ability to provide safe and decent housing,” according to HUD’s website.

All of this is significant because, in addition to the potential for privacy violations, knowing what is in the records, or even having access to them, presents a serious potential conflict of interest.

“There are often bids to contract any development projects,” says Erin McElroy, an assistant professor at the University of Washington. “I can imagine having insider information definitely benefiting the private market, or those who will move back into the private market,” she alleges.

HUD has an oversight role in the mobile home space, the area on which TCC Management, which appears to have recently wiped its website, focuses. "It’s been a growing area of HUD’s work and focus over the past few decades," says one source there; this includes setting building standards, inspecting factories, and taking in complaints. This presents another potential conflict of interest.

Braesemann says it’s not just the insider access to information and data that could be a potential problem, but that people coming from the private sector may not understand the point of HUD programs. Something like Section 8 housing, he notes, could be perceived as not working in alignment with market forces—“Because there might be higher real estate value, these people should be displaced and go somewhere else”—even though its purpose is specifically to buffer against the market.

Like other government agencies, HUD is facing mass purges of its workforce. NPR has reported that 84 percent of the staff of the Office of Community Planning and Development, which supports homeless people, faces termination, while the president of a union representing HUD workers has estimated that up to half the workforce could be cut The chapter on housing policy in Project 2025—the right-wing playbook to remake the federal government that the Trump administration appears to be following—outlines plans to massively scale back HUD programs like public housing, housing assistance vouchers, and first-time home buyer assistance.

[jyeshindra]

Astrology Testimonials (I)

Hey y'all! I'm doing a new series on my blog where I document my personal testimonials of how I have experienced my particular placements. This way, other people can gain insight on how astrology manifests for the individual and those who share similar placements may compare.

On being Jyeshta Moon

A big theme with Jyeshta is authority and power. Jyeshta often rises to some position of authority over the course of their lives (Naomi Campbell, Donald Trump) and if they don't this theme of power/authority will present itself somehow.

For me, I have always witnessed power being abused! Whether it was in my own home or in work environments, this has repeatedly come up in my life. My father controlled the emotional climate in my home but was cold and emotionally absent. He misused his authority as a parent to control and constrict his home and failed to fulfill the duties of his role (no shade, Dad! Love you!)

When he passed away, I learned about his secrets from my mother and through the events that took place after. Mismanagement of our finances, adultery, and other scandals emerged, which continued this theme in my life. More happenings of my father misusing, abusing his authority. My mother isn't entirely innocent either but I won't shade her here (lol).

I was hungry for money when I came of working age and came in and out of a lot of different fast food positions. I would rise to the position of manager quite easily (another Jyeshta theme) and constantly witness my bosses and fellow managers mishandle or abuse their power. (iykyk, ff industry can be very toxic and abusive)

Because my father passed away at 13 and I learned his secrets between that age and 15, I spent much of my teenage years having this deep awareness that power could be misused. I would see it in institutions, in my teachers, at school, among my peers. In the world...hell, everywhere! Also, as a black person, I am no stranger to systemic oppression--another abuse of power. This too has given me a lens to engage these Jyeshta themes.

Such experiences then manifested as a deep mistrust of authority and by extension, my own authority. I have a difficult time believing people in power and at times have an unhealthy amount of skepticism within my mind. I feel at times I have seen too much. It can make me hopeless and almost corrosive inside. Thankfully, my Pisces sidereal placements (Revati) balance out my cold pragmatism.

All that being said, I am changing. And I am making space for a different framing of power. I am reclaiming my own now as I enter young adulthood (I am 22 years old!). I will always have a bit of a thirst for power. I can't describe it. I just know I'm meant for it. It suits me. And I know that all these insights on how power has been abused has cultivated a deep belief that if power chooses me, I will try to wield it responsibly.

So, I do everything with intention. Everything. I lead with intention. I love with intention. I speak with intention. I pray with intention. I manifest with intention. I do my best to be mindful and aware.

Those who use their power over others do not understand themselves. There is something in their hearts that is wounded and something in their minds that distorts their cognition. Wielding your power to abuse, lie, cheat, manipulate, hide, extort, abandon, indulge, etc. is an indication that healing is necessary. Rehabilitation is necessary. A change is needed--more love, is needed. And if that change is not sought, karma will come. This, I believe.

-jyeshindra

[rdiasrohini]

Unlock Your Career Potential: Find the Best MBA Colleges in Delhi Under GGSIPU

Enrolling in an MBA program is a powerful move if you plan to take your career to the next level. Among the many options available, the best MBA colleges in Delhi affiliated with Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) stand out for their academic excellence, affordability, and career opportunities. These Delhi MBA colleges offer industry-aligned programs, world-class faculty, and strong placement records, making them a top choice for ambitious business leaders.

Why Choose GGSIPU for Your MBA? GGSIPU is a prestigious public university that offers quality higher education in various disciplines. The top MBA colleges in Delhi under GGSIPU are known for their balanced approach combining theory and practical learning. Students benefit from modern infrastructure, industry internships, and regular interactions with corporate leaders.

These Delhi MBA colleges are strategically located, giving students access to networking opportunities, internships, and real-world business experience. Also, their fees are much cheaper than many private institutes, making them a value-packed option.

MBA Admission Process in GGSIPU Colleges

To apply to MBA programs in GGSIPU, candidates must qualify through national-level entrance exams like CAT, CMAT, or IPU CET conducted by the university. The entrance exam evaluates your skills in areas like quantitative aptitude, logical reasoning, English, and general awareness.

Once you qualify, the university conducts centralized counseling. Here, candidates go through document verification, preference selection, and final seat allocation based on merit. This structured admission process ensures that only deserving candidates are offered seats in the best MBA colleges in Delhi.

Specialisations Offered by Delhi MBA Colleges The colleges under GGSIPU offer a wide range of MBA specializations to suit today’s job market:

MBA in Finance: Build a strong foundation in investment banking, financial planning, and corporate finance.

MBA in Marketing: Learn digital marketing, branding, and market strategy.

MBA in Human Resource Management: Master the art of talent acquisition, employee engagement, and performance management.

MBA in Operations Management: Focus on supply chain efficiency, production planning, and quality management.

MBA in International Business: Understand the dynamics of global business and cross-border management.

MBA in IT Management: Integrate business strategies with emerging technological trends and systems.

These specialisations provide subject matter expertise and open doors to multiple career paths.

Strong Placement Record with Top Recruiters The strength of GGSIPU's top MBA colleges in Delhi is their excellent placement support. Career guidance, resume building, interview preparation, and mock sessions are integral to the training. Students are placed in prestigious organisations such as Amazon, Deloitte, EY, Infosys, ICICI Bank, and others.

The colleges maintain a strong alumni network and corporate relationships, helping students find exclusive internships and job roles in sectors such as consulting, IT, banking, and FMCG.

Bonus: Start your journey with a BBA Before an MBA, many students start by pursuing a BBA degree from a reputed BBA college in Delhi. A BBA builds a solid foundation in business principles and makes the transition to an MBA seamless. If you are beginning your academic journey, consider starting with a top-rated BBA college in Delhi.

Conclusion Whether you are beginning your journey with a BBA college in Delhi or aiming to pursue postgraduate studies from the best MBA colleges in Delhi, GGSIPU offers unmatched academic value and career opportunities. With high placement rates, industry-focused specialisations, and affordable fees, these colleges are ideal destinations for ambitious students seeking success in the business world.

[beardedmrbean]

A significant leak has exposed details about who is receiving payments for Russian propaganda activities in Bulgaria, OFFNews reported. Danish public broadcaster DR obtained a massive trove of documents - over 49,000 emails and more than 22,000 files - from a confidential source tied to a Russian state-backed group called the Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad, commonly known as Pravfond. The investigative outlet BIRD.bg is reporting on this extensive cache, which sheds light on the financing behind Kremlin-linked propaganda efforts within Bulgaria.

Pravfond, created by a presidential decree in 2011, is widely recognized as a Kremlin instrument aimed at spreading disinformation and influence operations across Europe. Previous investigations by DR and various European intelligence agencies have confirmed its role in orchestrating propaganda campaigns.

DR collaborated with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to analyze the documents, joining forces with 28 media partners including BIRD.bg under a joint investigation titled “Dear Compatriots.” The emails span the entire activity period of Pravfond, from its start in 2012 until November 2024, involving communications from at least 21,043 individuals.

Among the revelations are more than 360 grant agreements, with a majority—at least 260—issued between 2020 and 2024. The total funding Pravfond has directed to recipients across Europe and beyond amounts to at least .6 million. The numbering system for grants hints at an additional 713 grants not present in the leaked archive, indicating a possibly even larger scope of financing.

In parallel, the Baltic investigative platform Re:Baltica shared a related leak of over 35,000 emails and around 2,300 documents from IMHOclub, a Kremlin-funded Russian-language opinion site based in Latvia, further mapping the network of influence.

Looking specifically at Bulgaria, Pravfond’s local beneficiaries received over 6,000 from 2014 through 2024, representing roughly 7% of the fund’s total grant allocations. While the emails mention other grants, some documentation is missing from the leak, leaving parts of the picture incomplete.

Most of the money has gone to Bulgarian media outlets and organizations that stage events aimed at promoting pro-Kremlin narratives and policies. Although Pravfond’s stated primary mission is to provide legal support to Russian citizens abroad, the funding for such legal aid in Bulgaria appears minimal.

The main recipients of these grants, transferred in euros or dollars via bank payments, are several Bulgarian-registered entities closely tied to key individuals:

Federation "Union of Compatriots," led by Marina Dadikozyan, which organizes conferences and events;

National Association Together with Russia, also under Dadikozyan, focused on similar activities;

Interros Media Association, managed by Dadikozyan, which publishes the Russian-language portal "Vsemirnaya Rossiya";

BRIP OOD (Bulgarian-Russian Information Pool), run by Svetlana Sharenkova, publisher of the weekly “Russia Today” and event organizer;

Forum Bulgaria - Russia Association, another Sharenkova-linked group involved in conference and event organization.

BIRD.bg is currently preparing detailed reports on how these funds are used and the nature of the projects financed by Pravfond in Bulgaria, aiming to provide a clearer understanding of the Kremlin’s influence channels in the country.

[cl0udy-sk1ees]

My goals

I'm going to be listing my long term goals and revisit this post in a years time to review and see if I've managed to keep up with them

Sticking to a proper skin care routine. Being really depressed makes taking care of myself hard so I want to put more effort into it and hopefully this time next year things that feel impossible to do will be easy parts of my routine

Keeping my space clean. Another thing with being depressed is that I find it hard to keep my space clean so I want to try and keep it organised

Sticking to a workout routine. I've been on and off working out but I want to really commit to a workout routine to tone up and build muscle

Work on skills and hobbies. I don't have many hobbies or skills so I want to work on both of those things. There are a lot of things that I want to do but keep putting off so hopefully this time next year I'll have done at least some of those things

Being more social. I want to document my life on social media so I can see how far I've come. I also want to try making more friends and go out a lot more

Budgeting. My finances are a mess and I'm always broke so I really want to sort out a proper budgeting system

My dms are open if anyone wants to say hi

My discord is C0udysk1eees

[quill-plans]

My Gamified Life Framework

So below the cut is the general framework I followed to gamify my life that's been working (for the most part).

I hope to have my own system with (some of) its details up in the next few days as an example.

Please let me know if y'all need any kinda clarification or have any questions about the system - I'd be happy to share more!

Phase One - Assessment

1. Look over your current life and decide how/what you want to improve upon using this system - it could be large swaths of your life or smaller, more targeted areas.

2. Look at your overall life and divide it into general areas (I call them domains) and those general areas into sub-areas if needed (I call them sub-domains). Ex. Household into Chores and Maintenance. Household is the main life area, while Chores and Maintenance are the sub-areas.

3. Dream big about where you want to be and who you want to be in the future. This is a huge brainstorm of everything you can think of. It doesn't matter how large or how small.

4. Honestly decide how happy or fulfilled you are in each of your listed life areas (and sub-areas) using a list of your own objectives/questions specific to your end goals and ideal self. Ex. Finances - "I successfully budget my money" with a score of 4/10

Phase Two - Planning Systems

1. Look at your ideal future self and create a general plan/goals and list of milestones for a journey to get there.

2. Sort goals and milestones into life areas and sub-areas, along with prioritizing (or ordering) each of them.

3. For each life area (and sub-area), create or form Quests in the form of goals to advance yourself - the focus life areas are the larger goals and called Main Quests, the non-focus areas don't each need a goal, but if they do they're smaller and maybe more project focused and are called Side Quests.

4. Break down each of your brainstormed Main and Side Quests into actionable steps, projects, and/or milestones to take those bigger goals into manageable chunks.

5. Using the manageable chunks, break them down into XP values, gold rewards, and pick deadlines.

6. Create habits to surround and encourage your progress.

7. *Optional* Create a “shop” to give yourself rewards as you gain XP and Gold - as well as giving yourself breaks when needed.

8. Create a list of “Mandatory” tasks to be done every day - things that should be part of your routine already and need to be done daily. *Optional* Make each mandatory daily task worth 1 point, then multiply that by 2 weeks (14 days). That’s how much HP you should have for the month. Each month it resets to full HP.

9. *Optional* Plan for what happens if a “Player Death” occurs. Ex. For me it’s a shop close for 3 days and losing a randomized amount of loot and gold (decided by my husband).

Phase Three - Action

1. For each quarter or season, pick no more than 3 domains (maybe 4, depending) to focus on and advance the most.

2. Keep track of your HP and XP daily and your Gold weekly - however it works best for you.

3. Tweak your systems and assessments, and therefore your goals, as needed to get the best system for you. Originally, I didn’t have a gold/shop and an HP/”Player Death” system set up, but when I realized I needed a more immediate reward and punishment system they got added.

Notes

○ Always take what works for you and leave what doesn't - don't try to force things that don't work for you!

○ If this is popular, I can also create a pdf/document to share as well!

[headmate-ideas]

yoooo, could we get a headmate that’s an ADHD holder and nummica? your asks made us think a homotherium hybrid anthro would be cool too, if that’s fine. all opt-ins would help, tyty 🧡

[Brought to you by: Mods Perzoreth and Klaus!]

🥩 HEADMATE TEMPLATE 💸

✦ Name(s): Gareth, Fang, Ivan ✦ Pronouns: he/him, it/its, they/them, ix/ixs/ixself, roar/roars/roarself, e/em/eir/eirs/emself, fang/fangs/fangself ✦ Species: homotherium anthro ✦ Age: 35 ✦ Role(s): ADHD holder, nummica, worker headmate, socializer, communicator, chef ✦ Symptoms experienced: fidgeting, hyperfixations, RSD, mood swings, impulsivity, tendency to multitask, understimulation ✦ Labels: neutrois, androgyne, lesboy, darcian, transmasc ✦ Xenos: meat, teeth, metal (material and music) ✦ Likes: animals, anthro art, caves ✦ Dislikes: people who are really pushy about their beliefs ✦ Music taste: industrial metal, power metal, grunge ✦ Aesthetic(s): Memphis Design, metal aesthetic, meatcore ✦ Objectum attraction(s): vehicles ✦ Kins: oak trees, lions, bees ✦ Color palette: dark red brown, muted orange, tan, peach, gold ✦ Personality traits: determined, reckless, optimistic ✦ Interests: palentology, linguistics ✦ Hobbies: cooking, digital art ✦ Preferences: savory over sweet, warm colors over cool colors ✦ Heart emoji: 🤎, 🧡, ❤️ ✦ Emoji proxy: 🥩💸 ✦ Details:

Gareth is an anthropomorphic homotherium who holds the system's ADHD symptoms and manages their finances. He also helps planning fun events, as well as managing social situations. While he can be reckless at times, he always sticks to a plan once he's made one.

✦ Role performance:

ADHD symptoms that Gareth displays include fidgeting, hyperfixations, RSD, and impulsivity. He helps the system plan how they spend their money, as well as ways to save money. If the system have a job where they ever have to interact with people for any reason, Gareth handles those situations, as well as cooking.

✦ Personality:

Gareth is cheerful and optimistic, if a bit impulsive and reckless. The main exceptions to his impulsivity is in situations that he has thought through very carefully, e.g. his budget or his exact plans for a specific event. It is good at interacting with lots of different kinds of people and knowing what it is "supposed" to do and when.

✦ Identity:

Gareth has a gender that is equally a mix of masculine and feminine while also being neither binary gender. It is transmasculine and considers itself both a butch lesbian and a straight trans man.

✦ Interests and hobbies:

Gareth is fascinated by prehistory and prehistoric life, particularly the Cenozoic. It likes keeping documents of sourced information about prehistoric species. It also likes cooking, particularly meat dishes.

[These can be edited and changed as needed, and headmates will almost definitely not turn out EXACTLY as described.]

[odinsblog]

Billionaire fossil fuel mogul David Koch died August 23, 2019. Though he will rightfully be remembered for his role in the destruction of the earth, David Koch’s influence went far beyond climate denial. Ronald Reagan may have uttered the famous words, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” back in 1981—but it was David Koch, along with his elder brother Charles and a cabal of other ultrarich individuals, who truly reframed the popular view of government. Once a democratic tool used to shape the country’s future, government became seen as something intrusive and inefficient—indeed, something to be feared.

“While Charles was the mastermind of the social reengineering of the America he envisioned,” said Lisa Graves, co-director of the corporate watchdog group Documented, “David was an enthusiastic lieutenant.”

David Koch was particularly instrumental in legitimizing anti-government ideology—one the GOP now holds as gospel. In 1980, the younger Koch ran as the vice-presidential nominee for the nascent Libertarian Party. And a newly unearthed document shows Koch personally donated more than $2 million to the party—an astounding amount for the time—to promote the Ed Clark–David Koch ticket.

“Few people realize that the anti-American government antecedent to the Tea Party was fomented in the late ’70s with money from Charles and David Koch,” Graves continued. “The Libertarian Party, fueled in part with David’s wealth, pushed hard on the idea that government was the problem and the free market was the solution to everything.”

In fact, according to Graves, “The Koch-funded Libertarian Party helped spur on Ronald Reagan’s anti-government, free-market-solves-all agenda as president.”

Even by contemporary standards, the 1980 Libertarian Party platform was extreme. It called for the abolition of a wide swath of federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of Land Management, the Federal Election Commission, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Federal Trade Commission, and “all government agencies concerned with transportation.” It railed against campaign finance and consumer protection laws, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, any regulations of the firearm industry (including tear gas), and government intervention in labor negotiations. And the platform demanded the repeal of all taxation, and sought amnesty for those convicted of tax “resistance.”

Koch and his libertarian allies moreover advocated for the repeal of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs. They wanted to abolish federally mandated speed limits. They opposed occupational licensure, antitrust laws, labor laws protecting women and children, and “all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits, production, and interest rates.” And in true libertarian fashion, the platform urged the privatization of all schools (with an end to compulsory education laws), the railroad system, public roads and the national highway system, inland waterways, water distribution systems, public lands, and dam sites.

The Libertarian Party never made much of a splash in the election—though it did garner almost 12 percent of the vote in Alaska—but doing so was never the point. Rather, the Kochs were engaged in a long-term effort to normalize the aforementioned ideas and mainstream them into American politics.

(continue reading)

[stuarttechnologybob]

What are Optimal Character Recognition (OCR) Services?

OCR Outsourcing Services

Optical Character Recognition is a technology and resource that converts various types of documents—such as scanned and printed paper documents and sheets, PDFs, or images and physical documents captured and scanned by a digital camera or device—into editable and searchable data of information. OCR Outsourcing refers to hiring third-party experts to handle these processes, making data management more efficient and cost-effective for businesses.

How Do OCR Services Work?

OCR technology scans printed or handwritten text and translates it into digital characters using pattern recognition and machine learning. Once the data is converted, it can be edited, searched, and stored electronically. This is especially useful and beneficial for the businesses that manage and hold a high volume of paper records or image-based files as raw source data.

Key Benefits of OCR Outsourcing -

Faster Data Processing:

By outsourcing OCR services, businesses can process large volumes of data significantly faster than they can do in-house. Professional experts leverage tools and advanced resources and employ trained professionals to assure the prompt turnaround times and processing for faster data proceedings and operations.

Improved Accuracy:

High-quality OCR Outsourcing providers use AI-driven tools and resources that minimize and lower down the errors. As this guarantees that the captured data is examined up to as precise as possible, lowering the demand for manual corrections and errors.

Cost Efficiency:

Maintaining and leveraging in-house source OCR setup can be expensive and costly. As the outsourcing eliminates the demand for costly software and system, infrastructure, and specialized staff, offering a more affordable option for ongoing needs and business demands.

Better Data Organization:

OCR Outsourcing makes it easier to store and retrieve data as scanned documents become searchable. While this is quite helpful and considerable for industries such as healthcare, law, finance, and logistics.

Scalability:

Whether you need to process a few documents or thousands, outsourcing partners can scale their services to match your demand without affecting quality or delivery speed. Companies and professional experts such as Suma Soft, IBM, Cyntexa, and Cignex are known for offering reliable OCR Outsourcing services. They aid businesses to simplify the data capture process, lower down the workload, and improve the operational efficiency by handling document digitization with precision and care. Choosing a trusted partner ensures high-quality results and seamless data management. They combine technology, skilled teams, and secure processes to deliver high-quality OCR results tailored and personalized as per the settings of different industries and business sizes.

[jcmarchi]

Stackpack Secures $6.3M to Reinvent Vendor Management in an AI-Driven Business Landscape

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/stackpack-secures-6-3m-to-reinvent-vendor-management-in-an-ai-driven-business-landscape/

Stackpack Secures $6.3M to Reinvent Vendor Management in an AI-Driven Business Landscape

In a world where third-party tools, services, and contractors form the operational backbone of modern companies, Stackpack has raised $6.3 million to bring order to the growing complexity.

Led by Freestyle Capital, the funding round includes support from Elefund, Upside Partnership, Nomad Ventures, Layout Ventures, MSIV Fund, and strategic angels from Intuit, Workday, Affirm, Snapdocs, and xAI.

The funding supports Stackpack’s mission to redefine how businesses manage their expanding vendor networks—an increasingly vital task as organizations now juggle hundreds or even thousands of external partners and platforms.

Turning Chaos into Control

Founded in 2023 by Sara Wyman, formerly of Etsy and Affirm, Stackpack was built to solve a problem she knew too well: modern companies are powered by vendors, yet most still track them with outdated methods—spreadsheets, scattered documents, and guesswork. With SaaS stacks ballooning and AI tools proliferating, unmanaged vendors become silent liabilities.

“Companies call themselves ‘people-first,’ but in reality, they’re becoming ‘vendor-first,’” said Wyman. “There are often 6x more vendors than employees. Yet there’s no system of record to manage that shift—until now.”

Stackpack gives finance and IT teams a unified, AI-powered dashboard that provides real-time visibility into vendor contracts, spend, renewals, and compliance risks. The platform automatically extracts key contract terms like auto-renewal clauses, flags overlapping subscriptions, and even predicts upcoming renewals buried deep in PDFs.

AI That Works Like a Virtual Vendor Manager

Stackpack’s Behavioral AI Engine acts as an intelligent assistant, surfacing hidden cost-saving opportunities, compliance risks, and critical dates. It not only identifies inefficiencies—it takes action, issuing alerts, initiating workflows, and providing recommendations across the vendor lifecycle.

For instance:

Renewal alerts prevent surprise charges.

Spend tracking identifies underused or duplicate tools.

Contract intelligence extracts legal and pricing terms from uploads or integrations with tools like Google Drive.

Approval workflows streamline onboarding and procurement.

This brings the kind of automation once reserved for enterprise procurement platforms like Coupa or SAP to startups and mid-sized businesses—at a fraction of the cost.

A Timely Solution for a Growing Problem

Vendor management has become a boardroom issue. As more companies shift budgets from headcount to outsourced services, compliance and financial oversight have become harder to maintain. Stackpack’s early traction is proof of demand: just months after launch, it’s managing over 10,500 vendors and $510 million in spend across more than 50 customers, including Every Man Jack, Rho, Density, HouseRx, Fexa, and ZeroEyes.

“The CFO is the one left holding the bag when things go wrong,” said Brandon Lee, Accounting Manager at BizzyCar. “Stackpack means we don’t have to cross our fingers every quarter.”

Beyond Visibility: Enabling Smarter Vendor Decisions

Alongside its core platform, Stackpack is launching Requests & Approvals, a lightweight tool to simplify vendor onboarding and purchasing decisions—currently in beta. The feature is already attracting customers looking for faster, more agile alternatives to traditional procurement systems.

With a long-term vision to help companies not only manage but discover and evaluate vendors more strategically, Stackpack is laying the groundwork for a smarter, interconnected vendor ecosystem.

“Every vendor decision carries legal, financial, and security consequences,” said Dave Samuel, General Partner at Freestyle Capital. “Stackpack is building the intelligent infrastructure to manage these relationships proactively.”

The Future of Vendor Operations

As third-party ecosystems grow in size and complexity, Stackpack aims to transform vendor operations from a liability into a competitive advantage. Its AI-powered approach gives companies a modern operating system for vendor management—one that’s scalable, proactive, and deeply integrated into finance and operations.

“This isn’t just about cost control—it’s about running a smarter company,” said Wyman. “Managing your vendors should be as strategic as managing your talent. We’re giving companies the tools to make that possible.”

With fresh funding and a rapidly expanding customer base, Stackpack is poised to become the new standard for how modern businesses manage the partners powering their growth.

[mariacallous]

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee fired off two dozen requests Wednesday morning pressing federal agency leaders for information about plans to install AI software throughout federal agencies amid the ongoing cuts to the government's workforce.

The barrage of inquiries follow recent reporting by WIRED and The Washington Post concerning efforts by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to automate tasks with a variety of proprietary AI tools and access sensitive data.

“The American people entrust the federal government with sensitive personal information related to their health, finances, and other biographical information on the basis that this information will not be disclosed or improperly used without their consent,” the requests read, “including through the use of an unapproved and unaccountable third-party AI software.”

The requests, first obtained by WIRED, are signed by Gerald Connolly, a Democratic congressman from Virginia.

The central purpose of the requests is to press the agencies into demonstrating that any potential use of AI is legal and that steps are being taken to safeguard Americans’ private data. The Democrats also want to know whether any use of AI will financially benefit Musk, who founded xAI and whose troubled electric car company, Tesla, is working to pivot toward robotics and AI. The Democrats are further concerned, Connolly says, that Musk could be using his access to sensitive government data for personal enrichment, leveraging the data to “supercharge” his own proprietary AI model, known as Grok.

In the requests, Connolly notes that federal agencies are “bound by multiple statutory requirements in their use of AI software,” pointing chiefly to the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, which works to standardize the government’s approach to cloud services and ensure AI-based tools are properly assessed for security risks. He also points to the Advancing American AI Act, which requires federal agencies to “prepare and maintain an inventory of the artificial intelligence use cases of the agency,” as well as “make agency inventories available to the public.”

Documents obtained by WIRED last week show that DOGE operatives have deployed a proprietary chatbot called GSAi to approximately 1,500 federal workers. The GSA oversees federal government properties and supplies information technology services to many agencies.

A memo obtained by WIRED reporters shows employees have been warned against feeding the software any controlled unclassified information. Other agencies, including the departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services, have considered using a chatbot, though not necessarily GSAi, according to documents viewed by WIRED.

WIRED has also reported that the United States Army is currently using software dubbed CamoGPT to scan its records systems for any references to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. An Army spokesperson confirmed the existence of the tool but declined to provide further information about how the Army plans to use it.

In the requests, Connolly writes that the Department of Education possesses personally identifiable information on more than 43 million people tied to federal student aid programs. “Due to the opaque and frenetic pace at which DOGE seems to be operating,” he writes, “I am deeply concerned that students’, parents’, spouses’, family members’ and all other borrowers’ sensitive information is being handled by secretive members of the DOGE team for unclear purposes and with no safeguards to prevent disclosure or improper, unethical use.” The Washington Post previously reported that DOGE had begun feeding sensitive federal data drawn from record systems at the Department of Education to analyze its spending.

Education secretary Linda McMahon said Tuesday that she was proceeding with plans to fire more than a thousand workers at the department, joining hundreds of others who accepted DOGE “buyouts” last month. The Education Department has lost nearly half of its workforce—the first step, McMahon says, in fully abolishing the agency.

“The use of AI to evaluate sensitive data is fraught with serious hazards beyond improper disclosure,” Connolly writes, warning that “inputs used and the parameters selected for analysis may be flawed, errors may be introduced through the design of the AI software, and staff may misinterpret AI recommendations, among other concerns.”

He adds: “Without clear purpose behind the use of AI, guardrails to ensure appropriate handling of data, and adequate oversight and transparency, the application of AI is dangerous and potentially violates federal law.”