The Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to combine access to the sensitive and personal information of Americans into a single searchable system with the help of shady companies should terrify us – and should inspire us to fight back.
While couched in the benign language of eliminating government “data silos,” this plan runs roughshod over your privacy and security. It’s a throwback to the rightly mocked “Total Information Awareness” plans of the early 2000s that were, at least publicly, stopped after massive outcry from the public and from key members of Congress.
Under this order, ICE is trying to get access to the IRS and Medicaid records of millions of people, and is demanding data from local police. The administration is also making grabs for food stamp data from California and demanding voter registration data from at least nine states.
Much of the plan seems to rely on the data management firm Palantir, formerly based in Palo Alto. It’s telling that the Trump administration would entrust such a sensitive task to a company that has a shaky-at-best record on privacy and human rights.
Bad ideas for spending your taxpayer money never go away – they just hide for a few years and hope no one remembers. But we do. In the early 2000s, when the stated rationale was finding terrorists, the government proposed creating a single all-knowing interface into multiple databases and systems containing information about millions of people. Yet that plan was rightly abandoned after less than three years and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars, because of both privacy concerns and practical problems.
It certainly seems the Trump administration’s intention is to try once again to create a single, all-knowing way to access and use the personal information about everyone in America. Today, of course, the stated focus is on finding violent illegal immigrants and the plan initially only involves data about you held by the government, but the dystopian risks are the same.
Over fifty years ago, after the scandals surrounding Nixon’s “enemies list,” Watergate, and COINTELPRO, in which a President bent on staying in power misused government information to target his political enemies, Congress enacted laws to protect our data privacy. Those laws ensure that data about you collected for one purpose by the government can’t be misused for other purposes or disclosed to other government officials with an actual need. Also, they require the government to carefully secure the data it collects. While not perfect, these laws have served the twin goals of protecting our privacy and data security for many years.
Now the Trump regime is basically ignoring them, and this Congress is doing nothing to stand up for the laws it passed to protect us.
But many of us are pushing back. At the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where I’m executive director, we have sued over DOGE agents grabbing personal data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, filed an amicus brief in a suit challenging ICE’s grab for taxpayer data, and co-authored another amicus brief challenging ICE’s grab for Medicaid data. We’re not done and we’re not alone.
Look on the bright side: this way, you don’t have to worry about data breach notification letters from all sorts of different companies or agencies since they’ll all be coming from the same source. Really saves on letterhead.
Holy fuck. All of that will be stolen in 3 seconds and the minute it launches Russia will be granted special access. It was nice knowing ya’ll. Not really but. Yeah.
we will die when they get our socials 🥀
You joke but they could open up lines of credit, loans, make big purchases in your name. Of course, all my shit is shot so good luck getting approved with mine. Either way at this scale you could infinitely fuck with Americans in kind of financially devastating ways.
ok we don’t like that, I was not thinking about the larger picture etc
I’m really more concerned about what the US will do with it than what Russia might do with it.
They’re the same picture
The libertarian “don’t tread on me” wing of the Republican party is hilariously quiet.
That’s because their motto is “Tread on me harder, daddy” since 2016.
The libertarian wing was never really very libertarian, they mostly didn’t care much about weed and wanted to actually cut spending (or at least claimed to).
Look at Mike Lee (unfortunately my Senator) he calls himself a “libertarian” because he says no a lot, but he also toes the party line when it natters and hasn’t championed any social issues I’d call “libertarian.” I changed my registration to Republican just so I could vote against this clown twice in one election.
Coming from an ignorant outsider:
Is it possible to register as both Republican and Democrat? It feels like the primaries are at least as important as the elections themselves over there.No, you qualify for a given primary as of a specific date, so you can only participate in one. This is more due to the local Republican party policy than law, so YMMV in other states.
I’m usually registered Libertarian, and they’re primary system is way different (need to attend a convention), so the net result is that I don’t particular in any partisan primaries (and also don’t get the door to door signature spam). I’m registered this way not because I agree with the party (the national LP is basically “GOP light”, and the local one is largely irrelevant), but because they’re the largest third party and I want to help the stats.
Can someone EL5 me on how this is different from our data being stolen under the Patriot Act for the last two decades?
Palantir creates platforms for data.
This is creating a platform that allows somebody to access every piece of data in one centralized location.
So example, when somebody is determining your social security payment (if that even exists in the future) they(or more likely AI) might be basing that decision not just on data relevant to income but also on something like a personal social credit score based on every piece of available government data related to a person over their entire lifetime.
Did you get flagged as suspicious while flying bc of 9/11. Did something end up on your record by complete mistake? In this centralized data base you could have all kinds of real and incorrect details associated with you (or even other people like friends, family, neighbors, coworkers) used to discriminate against you. Data becomes destiny.
Not to mention if they integrate it with these live facial recognition surveillance networks, something they caught you doing on camera without your knowledge could be used to make decisions.
Not to mention if they integrate it with these live facial recognition surveillance networks, something they caught you doing on camera without your knowledge could be used to make decisions.
Also remember that facial recognition has trouble with minority faces so if you get put on that list because some algorithm thought you were someone else you’re fucked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XKeyscore
“You could read anyone’s email in the world, anybody you’ve got an email address for. Any website: You can watch traffic to and from it. Any computer that an individual sits at: You can watch it. Any laptop that you’re tracking: you can follow it as it moves from place to place throughout the world. It’s a one-stop-shop for access to the NSA’s information. … You can tag individuals … Let’s say you work at a major German corporation and I want access to that network, I can track your username on a website on a forum somewhere, I can track your real name, I can track associations with your friends and I can build what’s called a fingerprint, which is network activity unique to you, which means anywhere you go in the world, anywhere you try to sort of hide your online presence, your identity.”
As far as I can tell, the NSA data was into a dataset that allowed report software to run against it. It was also largely metadata, and it didn’t assign a person to the metadata.
Meaning it wasn’t an “enter a name” or "enter social security number.
This sounds like a dataset built for each person. Now how that’s going to work is a different question. Cops can already pull you over, and once they have your license plate, they can see if you’ve got warrants or outstanding fines, and various legal history.
Palantir’s data sounds like an efficient way to cause mass amounts of identity theft.
i can’t wait until the pictures of my asshole are finally immortalized in a dark web database leak torrent of the entire government
Well I’m moist now, anyone else?
Well apparently asshole prints are as unique as fingerprints, so maybe we’ll have a giant database of those too.
I thought it was already immortalized via onlyfans.
nice of them to put everything in one place for easier access for the ruskies.
Of course. Funnel all that info to Peter fucking Thiel’s Palantir surveillance company that also has contracts with international law enforcement.
There couldn’t possibly be any problems with funnelling every bit of panopticon into a single billionaire super lobbiest’s hands. Especially one that has openly stated that he doesn’t believe in the continuation of the human race. Who is the closest thing to a real life vampire, regularly getting blood transfusions from healthy young “blood boys” in a hare brained attempt to prolong his own life at all costs.
I find it a massive failure of society as a whole that this fucking charlatan wasn’t laughed out of society in the 2010s when he was doing interviews about the “blood boy” bullshit and all the other crackpot shit he was doing to prolong his life. Absolute fucking ghoul. The people in power value money more than sense.
We need to start saying they’re adding people who own guns as a table in that database and either get conservatives onboard with stopping it, or more likely just be able to call them hypocrites for one more thing.
“…Much of the plan relies on Palantir”
Owned by Sociopathic Oligarchs Peter Theil, who holds Vance’s leash, and paid Trump to put him in the VP slot, and believes that infusions of the blood of young men will help him live to be 150 (not kidding).
As much of a prick as this guy is, I don’t think that’s true. The behind the bastards episode on him couldn’t substantiate it at least
But just the blood infusion thing right? Pretty sure all the other stuff is true
150 is probably way too young in his opinion. He’s moved on to transhumanism. He wants to live for eternity
I hope he ends up a brain in a jar and somebody stores him in the back of a closet under some old newspapers.
Oh God yes a still sentient and thinking brain just completely devoid of sensory input for eternity until he goes mad. Ironic fates ftw
Eventually, Peter stopped thinking.
Nah, it’s true.
Well, guess I can’t deny such compelling evidence
Yep, when it comes to MAGAs, I’ll offer them the same commitment to truth that they have. They are bad people to the core, so I don’t have any problems believing the worst stories about them. I’m sure they are all totally true, and if they aren’t, I don’t care.
I wonder how we can be evil today?
-Trump administration
I wonder if us asenting this would demonstrate our willingness to Trump’s cock.
-Republicans in Congress
and should inspire us to fight back.
LOL. We won’t. US citizens have given up and those that haven’t don’t believe in anything but peaceful protests or trying to go about things “the right way”. Neither of which will do anything but hand over more control to billionaires and child rapists.
Sounds like you’ve given up and are ready to roll over for Daddy Fascist. Might as well get yourself a MAGA hat to match.
I’ve given up because I have tried rallying people and nobody wants to rally.
Everyone just wants to peacefully protest, which I disagree with.
Everyone wants to just wait until midterms, which is too late.
Nobody, dems included, have any balls. It’s over.
What the fuck have you done?
If nobody wants to rally behind your rallying cry, maybe try joining some existing organizations that have similar strategy and tactics as you. But just be aware that sometimes meeting those folks requires being active in adjacent spaces. You might need to put in the work to really get plugged in and involved.
But there is a vast sea of resistance work happening between, on one end, peacefully waving cardboard signs at passing cars and, on the other side, armed revolution. I’ll give you some examples:
- Meet with your local representatives and politicians and convince them to pass resolutions or legislation that put local roadblocks in the way of fascist incursions.
- Look up vendors that supply or provide services to Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices and contact their customers, encouraging them to drop their contracts due to those vendors working with ICE.
- Block entrances to ICE buildings to prevent kidnapped migrants from being transferred.
- Follow and harass ICE vehicles so as to screw up their operational security.
- Bang pots and pans outside hotels where ICE agents are known to be staying so that they can’t get any sleep.
- Show up at immigration court cases in support of migrants.
- Post long screeds on social media encouraging folks not to give up the fight.
I’ve done some but not all of the above. You might consider doing the same.
I agree that the people who are just twiddling their thumbs waiting for midterms are misguided, but so are the people who have given up six months into this regime. What I think isn’t misguided is trying to slow, delay, and generally gum up the works of everything this regime is trying to accomplish before the midterms. There are only so many months before then, so the more we can prevent them from damaging now, the better off we’ll be if and when we take back control. (I fully realize the prospect of even having midterms isn’t guaranteed, much less winning them.)
I really like your second bullet.
A couple of the others, my only hesitation is that I am a naturalized, non-white citizen so I do sometimes have to balance the progress my actions will yield with being disappeared from the equation entirely. Thoughts?
Yeah, I think right now it’s probably smart to be cautious. I don’t know your particular situation or risk tolerance, but I gotta believe that there’s some type of resistance you’d be comfortable doing. I will say though that pretty much anything worth doing right now is going to be outside our comfort zone. And that applies to all of us.
But even if you feel like there’s nothing you can do, you can support those who are in a better position to act.
Risk tolerance high, but blocking ICE entry a no-go because for me that’s just a visual fail and kind of a dumb move.
Stealth disruption, great. Funding efforts, happy to. Provide arms, fine. Use of my own arms, sure.
It’s stupid from a comsec perspective even if it wasn’t stupid for any other reasons. Compartmentalization is a good strategy as we continue to upgrade outdated and vulnerable systems. But of course, this “leader” is an idiot. So he wouldn’t know that.
Exactly.
I certainly agree with agencies having some amount of open access to their data, but only for things that are actually relevant. For example, the IRS should be able to check Social Security benefits to verify tax reports, but it shouldn’t see details like where their checks are being sent.
If an agency needs access to data, they should specify exactly what they need and the source agency should provide an API to only get that into.
This system will, does, or will one day know your porn preferences.
Cat ears and butt stuff. Might as well save them some CPU cycles.
I’s about to start confessing just to get it over with. Chubby Brunette Milfs for me. Oh & butt stuff too!
Just that one video over and over for me.
Risky click of the day: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WgREV-fPXE0
Fucking bastard is the convergence of all evil going on in the last few years. Unless one morning they wake up to their neighborhoods patrolled by “militia” in their brodozers, what’s gonna take people to shock them up into outrage, and it’s not just the minorities or the progressives?
I think there’s a reason the right keeps their base only as informed as they need them to be. Most of them have no clue what truth is anymore. It honestly takes a trusted person on the right saying something is going on to even make people start questioning things.
Like without Theo Von and Joe Rogan actually asking some questions about reality, I honestly think nobody on the right would have thought twice about Palestine and Epstein would have slipped back into the abyss like before.
I always think about what creates revolutions (and counter-revolutions), and most cases the lack of a single thing usually causes the affected classes to rise up. Something really needs to break the bastards.
My relatives who’ve been screaming about mark of the beast and shit for years sure confuse the hell Out of me when they voice support for this while wearing their maga hats.
They want to see the mark of the beast, and the Antichrist, and the apocalypse so the end times will come and Jesus will take them all to heaven and burn their enemies in eternal damnation.
And if any of it is true, they’ll be the ones wondering why they didn’t get taken because they’re such good little christians.
