Okay, But Why Do Billionaires Have Our Data?
If you’re like most Americans, you’re probably worried about privacy, especially when it comes to your personal information. We’re worried about social media companies (less than 1 in 5 Americans feel like Facebook protects their privacy) and we’re worried about the government collecting our data too.
The government has always maintained records of some of your basic information like your name, birthday, and Social Security number, and it also has a record of any time you’ve interacted with the government, like when you file your taxes, receive assistance for food or housing, apply for Medicare or a student loan, or vote.
But in the past, the government had guardrails to protect our information. Only certain people, after thorough background checks, could access our data. And even then, it was on a “need to know” basis. Someone from the student loan office couldn’t see your Medicare application just because they were curious. And every time someone did access your data, it was carefully recorded.
Privacy concerns used to be nonpartisan and honestly, they still should be! Back when the Privacy Act was passed in the 1970s, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater worried about the possibility that “every detail of our personal lives can be assembled instantly for use by a single bureaucrat or institution.” And Republican Senator Charles Percy said, “I hope that we never see the day when a bureaucrat in Washington can use his organization’s computer facilities to assemble a complete dossier of all known information about an individual.”
“What does the government want with our data? You know, it depends on the government. If it’s a democratic government, it’ll probably be used to sell you stuff… The worst case scenario is a Chinese surveillance country, an authoritarian country that follows and tracks us. There’s enormous amounts of data and using AI, you really can track everybody in a way that is really profound.”
DOGE Got Unprecedented Access to our Data
Fast-forward to today. There have been serious concerns about Elon Musk’s DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, and how their employees are using our information.
What’s different about DOGE is that they got unprecedented access to all of our federal data, across departments and agencies. And because it was never an official government department, DOGE employees didn’t have to go through the same background checks and screenings.
DOGE gained access to payment systems that process trillions of dollars in government transactions – and at least one employee had edit access as well, meaning that they could both see and change the data. In April, a whistleblower reported that DOGE employees were making copies of sensitive information. Elon Musk may have even gotten access to information about employees at his own companies, Tesla and SpaceX.
Palantir and Peter Thiel
Meanwhile, Peter Thiel, another billionaire and the founder of the tech company Palantir, has been working to build a massive, government-run database of Americans… a one-stop shop with all of our information, from tax returns to medical records, all in the same place. You know, exactly the thing the government has always known not to do. In fact, there’s a law about it – the 1974 Privacy Act.
In September, Palantir is scheduled to release a new system called ImmigrationOS which tracks people based on geolocation devices and biometric data like voice patterns and facial recognition. Given the security concerns about how DOGE mishandled our data, why would we believe that Palantir would do any better?
Data Privacy Has Bipartisan Support
Even in the past few years, data privacy has been an issue that transcends political parties. Bipartisan bills were introduced in 2022 and 2024 related to data privacy, but neither bill made it to a vote in the House of Representatives. With the majority of Americans in agreement, we can push for stronger data protections.
In the meantime, we can also protect ourselves online. Check out these resources from our event, Cybersecurity 101: Protecting Yourself Online to learn how.