Palantir to merge info about Americans

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html

Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans

The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work with the government, spreading the company’s technology — which could easily merge data on Americans — throughout agencies.

By Sheera Frenkel and Aaron Krolik, The New York Times, May 30, 2025

In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.

Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.

The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.)

Representatives of Palantir are also speaking to at least two other agencies — the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — about buying its technology, according to six government officials and Palantir employees with knowledge of the discussions…

The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status… [end quote]

Palantir’s stock price leaped at the beginning of 2025. Its P/E ratio is 600. It doesn’t pay a dividend.

Expanding its AI software platform capabilities, Palantir also announced a collaboration with Fannie Mae FNMA this week to combat mortgage fraud, along with a $795 million contract modification with the U.S. Army, as the deal now has a total award of $1.3 billion. The Fannie Mae partnership will focus on launching an AI-powered Crime Detection Unit, with the U.S. Army deal extending its Maven Smart System (MSS) software licenses, which are designed to enhance AI-powered military operations by integrating advanced data analytics and AI-driven decision-making tools to support combatant commands in dynamic operations. [end quote]

I am deeply uncomfortable about the government collecting info about Americans in one master database…even though the right hand should know what the left hand is doing. I suspect that the government’s legitimate data (income, benefits, military service, meta-data about telecommunications) will also be merged with non-government data such as social media posts, credit scores, possibly even Google searches, etc.

This is moving in the direction of China’s Social Credit System.
https://chatgpt.com/c/683b242d-c718-800d-a957-206442647aae

The database might form the foundation of a totalitarian state. Not to mention the dangers of fraud, identity theft, etc. if (when) the database is hacked.

Palantir is taking the approach that it’s only providing the technology and isn’t responsible for the politics or fallout from its work. That’s like the verse from the Tom Lehrer song, “Once the rockets go up who cares where they come down? That’s not my department, says Wehrner von Braun.”

Wendy

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Since 9/11 and passage of the Patriot Act no American should have any expectation of privacy.
And then there is the annual National Defense Authorization Act that is rubber stamp and broaden as years go by.

Sacrificial offerings to the Pentagon aren’t news. But this time, snugly ensconced in the NDAA came ratification by legal statute of the exposure of US citizens to arbitrary arrest without subsequent benefit of counsel, and to possible torture and imprisonment sine die . Goodbye, habeas corpus.

We’re talking here about citizens within the borders of the United States, not sitting in a hotel or out driving in some foreign land. In the latter case, as the late Anwar al-Awlaki’s incineration in Yemen bore witness a few months ago, the well-being or summary demise of a US citizen is contingent upon a secret determination of the president as to whether the aforementioned citizen is waging a war of terror on the United States. If the answer is in the affirmative, the citizen can be killed on the president’s say-so without further ado.

Noncitizens get thrown in the Supermax without a prayer of having a lawyer.

Following the June 2013 leak of documents detailing the NSA practice of collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans’ telephone calls, Clapper was accused of perjury for telling a congressional committee hearing that the NSA does not collect any type of data on millions of Americans earlier that year. One senator asked for his resignation, and a group of 26 senators complained about Clapper’s responses under questioning.

Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former NSA intelligence contractor and whistleblower[2] who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.

In 2013, while working as a government contractor, Snowden leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA). He was indicted for espionage.[3] His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments and prompted a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.

Giving up freedom for security does not appear a good deal to me. But that horse left the barn many years ago.

Quite a few American folk no longer trust their government nor the main stream media. A big change since 1969 when I graduated from high school.

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True. First principles to ask are why is this being done, how can it go wrong, and who benefits. Charlie Munger used to ask, “Where are the incentives?”

In this case, Palantir gets paid handsomely so the government can know everything about you and act against you if it chooses, much like in current China.

To maintain a system that collects data all the time on all people would be hugely expensive, with few benefits to the populace, but oppressive control on the people, and wealth going to the few.

It all spells totalitarianism.

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As in all things, the only real protection for “we the people” is that those with the power, be people of good will. Leaders need to be the sort that stand up and say “NO, because it’s wrong”. I remember reading of former AG Ashcroft arguing over the phone with the POTUS, from his hospital bed, because what the POTUS wanted to do was blatantly illegal.

Steve

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Just as well we have been seeing the ‚good will‘ people selected over those prioritizing utmost ‚loyalty,‘ right?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump spent much of his first term feeling stung and betrayed by those he’d placed in power. This time, he’s not taking chances.As he works to fill his administration a second time, Trump has turned to a head-spinning mix of candidates. Many of those he’s chosen are personal friends. Others are familiar faces on Fox News Channel or other conservative outlets. … His first term was filled with examples of aides who tried to outmaneuver Trump by slow-walking or ignoring directives they saw as ill-advised.

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The possibilities are endless. It could also be a ‚useful tool‘ for senior administration members to more easily dig up di…, errm, provide guidance to political opponents, pesky journalists, and unelected activist judges.

Is the US descending into darkness?

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Sarcasm understood. Typical “JC” behavior, to build an echo chamber around himself, and fill it with “yes men”. I forget which one of his cabinet members, when he resign/was fired, on the last go around, said his last words to TIG were “don’t hire another yes man”, but that is what “JCs” do.

Twenty some years ago, Harmy took me to task for describing the US as “becoming a big, heavily armed, aggressive, banana republic”. I stand by my assessment. And, as I worried, years ago, I don’t know how the country gets off of this trajectory, especially now, as we have a head of state who only respects election outcomes when they tell him what he wants to hear. (more typical “JC” behavior)

Steve

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Ah, the net is a wonderful thing.

Former White House chief of staff John Kelly

“I said, whatever you do – and we were still in the process of trying to find someone to take my place – I said whatever you do, don’t hire a ‘yes man,’ someone who won’t tell you the truth – don’t do that,” Kelly said at the time. “Because if you do, I believe you will be impeached".

Steve

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The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. It ensures that the government needs a warrant based on probable cause to conduct a search or seizure. This warrant must be supported by an oath or affirmation and must specifically describe the place to be searched and the items to be seized.

Sorry but that has been a constant in America.

We sell our ethics so quickly. We support ignorant people so quickly.

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A sign of hope: J D Vance commencement speech at Annapolis

Vance reminded the midshipmen that,

…We had a long experiment in our foreign policy that traded national defense and the maintenance of our alliances for nation building and meddling in foreign countries affairs, even when those foreign countries had very little to do with core American interests.

Taking aim at the aforementioned theories of American primacy from the 1990s, Vance noted that,

…Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, our policymakers assumed that American primacy on the world stage was guaranteed. For a brief time, we were a superpower without any peer, nor did we believe any foreign nation could possibly rise to compete with the United States of America.

So our leaders traded hard power for soft power. We stopped making things, everything from cars to computers to the weapons of war, like the ships that guard our waters and the weapons that you will use in the future. Why do we do that? Well, too many of us believe that economic integration would naturally lead to peace by making countries like the People’s Republic of China more like the United States.

Over time, we were told the world would converge toward a uniform set of bland, secular, universal ideals, regardless of culture or country, and those that didn’t want to converge, well, our policy makers would make it their goal to force them by any means necessary.

About the strategy (or lack thereof) of the Bush-Cheney foreign policy, Vance observed that,

…Our leaders pursued what they assumed would be easy jobs for the world’s preeminent superpower.

‘How hard could it be to build a few democracies in the Middle East?’ Well, almost impossibly hard, it turns out, and unbelievably costly. And it wasn’t our politicians that bore the consequences of such a profound miscalculation; it was the American people, to the tune of trillions of dollars. But more than anyone, it was born by the people who were in your shoes, just a few short years ago, by our service members and their families.

Perhaps no more foreign adventures/meddling in the US future? It seems the president is looking for a deal with Iran.

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  • allows broad warrants to be issued by a secretive court for any type of record, from financial to medical, without the government having to declare that the information sought is connected to a terrorism or espionage investigation;
  • allows the FBI to obtain wiretaps from the secret court (i.e. “roving wiretaps”,) known as the FISA court, without identifying the target or what method of communication is to be tapped;
  • allows the FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of a person (“lone wolf” measure ) for whatever reason – even without showing that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist.

Also in need of reform, are what’s called National Security Letters (NSLs) - which allow the FBI, without a court order, to obtain telecommunication, financial and credit records deemed “relevant” to a government investigation. The FBI issues about 50,000 a year and an internal watchdog has repeatedly found the flagrant misuse of this power.

https://www.npr.org/2013/06/13/191226106/fisa-court-appears-to-be-rubberstamp-for-government-requests
FISA Court Appears To Be Rubber Stamp For Government Requests

Thanks to the relentless work by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) - and information uncovered by the Freedom of Information Act - there is little to no evidence that these provisions, as written, have made us any safer. Yet there’s a long list of incidences of unadulterated government abuse and malpractice for a host of purposes other than fighting terrorism.

Clinesmith was helping to prepare the application, and in doing so, he altered an email which originally stated that Page was a government “source,” as he had publicly claimed. However Clinesmith added words to make it appear that the government agency, which was later revealed to be the CIA, said that Page was “not a source,” according to the Justice Department’s information in the case.

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In recent weeks, his boss has only stopped making threats to Panama. There have been two, uninvited, visits by US delegations to Greenland, and the “51st state” nonsense against Canada continues.

But why so quiet about Panama? Did the port sale do the trick? Or did he stop the propaganda, because he decided the case and been made and the “liberation from the Godless Commies” plans are being drawn up?

Steve

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The defense of Taiwan from China will make all other foreign adventures since WW2 pale by comparison…if it happens.
Wendy

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