In March, President Trump signed an executive decree calling for the federal government to Share data between agenciesLifting questions to find out if he could compile a main list of personal information about Americans who could give him countless supervisory power.
Trump has not spoken publicly since the effort since. But behind the scenes, those responsible have quietly put the technological construction blocks in place to allow its plan. In particular, they turned to a company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology company.
The Trump administration has widened the work of Palantir through the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $ 113 million in federal government’s expenses since Mr. Trump took office, according to public archives, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Ministry of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $ 795 million contract that the Ministry of Defense awarded last week, which was not spent.)
Palants representatives also speak to at least two other agencies – the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service – on the purchase of its technology, according to six government representatives and the Palantir employees knowing the discussions.
The push has placed a key product palantant called Foundry in at least four federal agencies, including the DHS and the Department of Health and Social Services. Adopting a largely adopted foundry, which organizes and analyzes the data, opens the way to Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, said government officials.
The creation of detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not only a pipe dream. Trump administration has already asked for access Hundreds of data points on citizens and others as part of government databases, including their number of bank accounts, the amount of their student debt, their medical complaints and any disability status.
