Final Friday, the New York Occasions printed an explosive report on the Trump administration’s work with Palantir, which may consequence within the creation of a grasp database with info on each single American. Per the Occasions, if any such “grasp record” was created, it might give the president “untold surveillance energy.”
President Donald Trump signed an government order earlier this 12 months enabling the federal authorities to share knowledge on People throughout U.S. businesses. Nonetheless, we now know extra about how the administration intends to do it.
Trump has tapped the tech agency Palantir, co-founded by Trump and Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, to hold out these efforts. The New York Occasions reported that Palantir’s expertise would make it potential to compile delicate info from businesses just like the Division of Homeland Safety, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Inner Income Service. Varied authorities databases already embody info on People’ checking account numbers, medical claims, disabilities, pupil debt quantities, and extra, although not in a single central place.
The Trump administration has mentioned that it is trying to “eradicate info silos and streamline knowledge assortment throughout all businesses to extend authorities effectivity and save hard-earned taxpayer {dollars}.” Nonetheless, the specter of a central database is a nightmare for privateness watchdogs, and has even raised privateness and safety considerations from former Palantir staff.
What’s Palantir?
Over the previous few years, Palantir has change into a number one knowledge and analytics firm. Whereas Palantir does present its companies to company shoppers, the corporate’s most distinguished and controversial work has been for the federal authorities, particularly for the U.S. navy and intelligence businesses, in addition to governments world wide.
Palantir was based within the early 2000s by right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, together with enterprise capitalists and entrepreneurs Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp, who at present serves as the corporate’s CEO. Thiel selected the title Palantir after the crystal balls utilized in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
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Who’s Peter Thiel?
If any of these names sounds acquainted to you, it is probably Thiel’s. One of many co-founders of PayPal, Thiel is a secretive Silicon Valley titan and conservative “kingmaker”. In truth, it was Thiel that finally ousted Elon Musk, a fellow co-founder who was serving as PayPal CEO on the time, from the corporate. After, Musk’s ousting, Thiel himself took over as PayPal CEO in 2000. In 2004, Thiel turned the primary outdoors investor in Fb, turning his $500,000 funding into greater than $1 billion.
Why is Palantir so controversial?
Palantir presents itself as a knowledge and analytics firm, nevertheless it additionally has a popularity for being extremely secretive about its knowledge mining and surveillance work. Palantir has additionally been criticized for offering intelligence companies to assist the Israeli navy within the 2023 Israel-Hamas warfare. CEO Karp has beforehand confirmed that Palantir supplies intelligence companies to the IDF. In response, Palantir has defended its work with Israel and has denied accusations of aiding warfare crimes, as its fiercest critics allege. Palantir has additionally been tapped to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) observe immigrants within the U.S. as a part of the Trump Administration’s extremely controversial policing and deportation efforts.
The corporate has been closely criticized by knowledge privateness advocates, anti-war protesters, and different organizations over time.
Why would the Trump Administration faucet Palantir to gather knowledge on People?
Palantir has already been contracted by the federal authorities for years now. For instance, Palantir beforehand labored with Well being and Human Providers to assist observe the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, since Trump’s inauguration earlier this 12 months, Palantir’s income and inventory have skyrocketed. Palantir has acquired greater than $113 million from the federal authorities in 2025 to date. Along with that, the Division of Protection simply awarded Palantir with a $795 million contract final week. In line with Palantir’s closing quarterly report for 2024, the corporate made $1.2 billion in income from the U.S. authorities that 12 months.
As well as, Palantir co-founder Thiel can be a serious Republican donor. He is contributed tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to Republican congressional campaigns over time, in addition to $1.25 million to Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign.
In line with the New York Occasions, Musk and his Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) have been broadly answerable for the choice of Palantir for the information assortment mission. Quite a few DOGE staff have beforehand labored for Palantir or different corporations funded by Thiel.
