AMERICANS UNDER SURVEILLANCE: THE REAL COST OF "SMART GOVERNMENT"
In the name of efficiency, national security, and cost savings, Americans are being surveilled more aggressively than ever before.
In March, President Trump signed an executive order to “eliminate information silos” and enhance “government efficiency.” While the language was bland, the implications were staggering. Behind the scenes, this order authorized the construction of a digital infrastructure capable of fusing data across federal agencies, effectively creating a master database of the American people.
Trump’s Executive Order: A Digital Dragnet?
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Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. Removing unnecessary barriers to Federal employees accessing Government data and promoting inter‑agency data sharing are important steps toward eliminating bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency while enhancing the Government’s ability to detect overpayments and fraud. Sec. 3. Eliminating Information Silos. (a) Agency Heads shall take all necessary steps, to the maximum extent consistent with law, to ensure Federal officials designated by the President or Agency Heads (or their designees) have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems — or their equivalents if providing access to an equivalent dataset does not delay access — for purposes of pursuing Administration priorities related to the identification and elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse. This includes authorizing and facilitating both the intra- and inter-agency sharing and consolidation of unclassified agency records. (b) Within 30 days of the date of this order, Agency Heads shall, to the maximum extent consistent with law, rescind or modify all agency guidance that serves as a barrier to the inter- or intra-agency sharing of unclassified information specified in subsection (a) of this section. Agency Heads shall also review agency regulations governing unclassified data access, including system of records notices, and, within 30 days of the date of this order, submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget cataloging those regulations and recommending whether any should be eliminated or modified to achieve the goals set forth in this order. Regulatory modifications pursuant to this order are exempt from Executive Order 14192. <Source>
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Beneath a dense web of government contracts, data-sharing initiatives, and the softening of legal safeguards, a shadowy force is helping build the backbone of what civil liberties groups are calling a “surveillance state.”
That force is Denver, Colorado-based Palantir Technologies, a software company specializing in big data analytics and artificial intelligence, co-founded by openly gay billionaire investor and Trump mega-donor, Peter Thiel. Thiel has played an influential role behind the scenes in helping place allies in key administration positions, particularly in national security and technology.
The Privatization of Government Surveillance
Palantir has long operated as a key contractor for military and intelligence agencies, but its reach has grown exponentially in recent years. Under the guise of modernization, Palantir’s data analytics tools are now embedded in the IRS, DHS, Social Security Administration, and ICE. Its flagship software, Foundry, makes it frighteningly easy to merge once-disparate data silos — tax records, medical histories, bank accounts, disability claims, student loan data — into unified, real-time profiles of U.S. citizens.
Efficiency, Not Justice
What once required judicial oversight, court-issued warrants, and stringent privacy protocols now resembles a basic commercial transaction, with federal agencies purchasing your most sensitive information from commercial data brokers instead of getting a judge’s approval.
These changes aren’t accidental. They are intentional, systemic, and ideological.
Palantir’s systems don’t just gather and display data; they interpret it. Foundry and Gotham allow for pattern detection, intent modeling, and behavioral prediction, redefining how law enforcement and prosecutors understand mens rea, the crucial legal element of criminal intent.
Imagine being investigated not for what you did, but for what an algorithm predicts you might do, based on past data, social media activity, or even associations. That’s no longer science fiction; it is quietly becoming standard operating procedure.
And YOU Consented
Remember those embedded terms of service and privacy agreements you were forced to sign as a condition of gaining access to a website, service, or application – the one’s that allowed an offeror to exempt themselves from the consequences of any action, intentional or unintentional, and one that precluded class action lawsuits in favor of arbitration. Congratulations, those very agreements allow those entities to share or sell your data to commercial data brokers, and by extension, the government, which is precluded from collecting data on its own.
Palantir defends itself by claiming it is only a data processor, not a controller of information. However, this legal distinction means little when their tools make it easier for the government to act without public scrutiny or constitutional restraint.
Normalizing a Surveillance Nation
What’s most chilling isn’t that the surveillance is happening, it’s that it’s being normalized. Every new contract and data integration is framed as progress, cost-cutting, and “smart government.” But underneath it all lies a dismantling of privacy rights once foundational to American democracy.
Bottom Line
The fight over data privacy and surveillance isn’t just about technology but power. As long as companies like Palantir can operate as unaccountable agents and privatized extensions of the federal government, Americans must remain vigilant.
Efficiency and savings must never cost us our liberty. Government contracts must carry full legal and financial accountability, especially for the executives and employees behind them.
If we can’t trust the government to protect our personal, non-public private data, we are so screwed.
-- Steve
“Nullius in verba”-- take nobody's word for it!
"Acta non verba" -- actions not words
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw
“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”
“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell “Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar “Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS