Mastodawn

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

AMERICAN PANOPTICON

The #Trump admin is pooling #data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next.

by Ian Bogost & Charlie Warzel

If you were tasked with building a #panopticon, your design might look a lot like the #information stores of the US federal govt—a collection of large, complex agencies, each making use of enormous volumes of data provided by or collected from #citizens.

#law #privacy #InfoSec #AmericanAutocracy #tech #DOGE #Musk #surveillance
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/american-panopticon/682616/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxc3WqSyzCi3gasJ-au_BC9g&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

American Panopticon

The Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next.

The Atlantic

The federal govt is a veritable cosmos of #information, made up of constellations of #databases: The #IRS gathers comprehensive #financial & #employment info from every taxpayer; the Dept of Labor maintains the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP) system, which collects the #personal info of many workers; #DHS amasses #data about the movements of every person who travels by air commercially or crosses the nation’s borders; the #DEA tracks license plates scanned on American roads.

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

And that’s only a minuscule sampling. More obscure agencies, such as the recently gutted #CFPB, keep records of corporate trade secrets, #credit reports, #mortgage info, & other sensitive #data, including lists of people who have fallen on financial hardship.

A fragile combination of decades-old laws, norms, & jungly bureaucracy has so far prevented repositories such as these from assembling into a centralized American #surveillance state.

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #tech #DOGE #Musk

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

But that appears to be changing. Since #Trump’s 2nd inauguration, #ElonMusk & #DOGE have systematically gained #access to sensitive #data across the federal govt, & in ways people in several agencies have described…as both dangerous & disturbing. Despite DOGE’s stated mission, little efficiency seems to have been achieved. Now a new phase of Trump’s project is under way: Not only are individual agencies being breached, but the info they hold is being pooled…

#law #privacy #InfoSec #surveillance

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

In March, #Trump issued an #ExecutiveOrder aiming to eliminate the #data #silos that keep everything separate. Historically, much of the data collected by the govt had been heavily compartmentalized & secured; even for those legally authorized to see sensitive data, requesting access for use by another govt agency is typically a painful process that requires justifying what you need, why you need it, & proving that it is used for those purposes only. Not so under Trump.

#law #privacy #InfoSec

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

This is a perilous moment. Rapid technological advances over the past two decades have made #DataShedding ubiquitous—whether it comes from the devices everyone carries or the platforms we use to communicate with the world. As a society, we produce unfathomable quantities of #information, & that information is easier to collect than ever before.

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #AmericanAutocracy #tech #DOGE #Musk #surveillance

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

The government has tons of it, some of which is obvious—names, addresses, & census data—& much of which may surprise you. Consider, say, a limited tattoo database, created in 2014 by the National Institute of Standards & Technology, & distributed to multiple institutions for the purpose of training software systems to recognize common tattoos associated with gangs & criminal organizations.

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #AmericanAutocracy #tech #DOGE #Musk #surveillance

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

The #FBI has its own “Next Generation Identification” #biometric & #criminal-history #database program; the agency also has a #FacialRecognition apparatus capable of matching people against >640M photos—a database made up of #DriversLicense & #passport photos, as well as mug shots. The #SocialSecurity Admin keeps a master #earnings file, which contains the “individual earnings histories for each of the 350+ million SSNs that have been assigned to workers.”

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #DOGE

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

Other govt #databases contain secret #whistleblower data. At the Dept of #Veterans Affairs, you’ll find granular #MentalHealth info on fmr service members, including notes from #therapy sessions, details about #medication, & accounts of substance abuse. Govt agencies including the #IRS, #FBI, #DHS, & Dept of #Defense have all purchased #cellphone-#location data, & possibly collected them, via secretive groups such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

That means the govt has at least some ability to map or re-create the past everyday movements of some American citizens. This is hardly even a cursory list of what is publicly known.

Advancements in #AI promise to turn this unwieldy mass of #data & metadata into something easily searchable, politically weaponizable, & maybe even profitable.

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #AmericanAutocracy #tech #DOGE #Musk #surveillance

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

#DOGE is reportedly attempting to build a “master database”of #immigrant data to aid in #deportations; #NIH Dir Jay Bhattacharya has floated the possibility of an #autism registry (the admin quickly walked it back).America already has all the tech it needs to build a draconian #surveillance society—the conditions for such a dystopia have been falling into place slowly over time, waiting for the right #authoritarian to come along & use it to crack down on American #privacy & #freedom.
#Trump #law

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

But what can an American #authoritarian, or his private-sector accomplices, do with all the government’s #data, both alone & combined with data from the private sector? To answer this question, we spoke with former government officials who have spent time in these systems & who know what #information these agencies collect & how it is stored.

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #AmericanAutocracy #tech #DOGE #Musk #surveillance

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

To a person, these experts are alarmed about the possibilities for harm, graft, & abuse. Today, they argued, #Trump is targeting #LawFirms, but #DOGE #data could allow him to target individual Americans at scale. For instance, they described how the govt…is…a #debt collector on all kinds of federal #loans. Those who struggle to repay…could be punished beyond what’s possible now, by having professional licenses revoked or…wages or bank accounts frozen.

#law #privacy #InfoSec #tech #surveillance

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

…#data could also allow the govt or…its private-sector allies to target big swaths of the population based on a supposed attribute or trait. Maybe you have info from background checks or health studies that allows you to punish people who have seen a therapist…. Or to terminate certain…benefits to anybody who has ever shown income above a particular threshold, claiming that they obviously don’t need public benefits because they once made a high salary.
#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #surveillance

Nonilex Apr 27, 2025

A pool of govt #data is especially powerful when combined w/private-sector data, such as… #mobile-#phone #geolocation data…could make inferences about actions, activities, or associates of…anybody perceived as a govt critic or #dissident.…The govt’s current use of combined data in service of #deportations—& its refusal to offer credible evidence of wrongdoing for some of those deported—suggests the admin is willing to use the data for #political aims.

#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #surveillance

Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Apr 27, 2025

"...suggests the admin is willing to use the data for #political aims."

Highlighting why the right to privacy is so important. Of course, 200+ years ago, they couldn't imagine all the ways our lives could be probed, but the Constitution addressed the concerns that were known: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."

Arthur Dent Apr 28, 2025

@Nonilex
Brave new World.........

JerseyBlue Apr 27, 2025

@Nonilex We should be building a database of all the enablers, facilitators, leaders, advisors, and funders of this authoritarian coup. It will come in handy in due course. Accountability WILL have its day.

Molly Cantrell-Kraig 🍷Apr 27, 2025

They’re amassing Full Spectrum Dominance and planning to deploy it against their own citizenry.

I only hope there’s some sort of opposition in the works behind the scenes, bc if there’s not, things are going to get very bad—incomprehensibly bad—for millions of people (and not just immigrants). Literally enemies of the state (as defined by the bully in the Oval).

#infosec #opsec #tech #USpol

hskzoom Apr 27, 2025

@Nonilex This creepy and frightening merging of disparate databases, including analysis by Palantir, can also happen here.

noplasticshower Apr 27, 2025

@Nonilex there is sadly little #privacy in the United States. The government has a huge long way to go to catch up to data brokers, advertising brokers (meta and Google), and medical information companies with regard to citizen portfolios. Palantir has been busy doing this for the federal spooks and cops for years.

Of course, that's not to justify the move or make it seem like a good idea. It's just the reality on the ground.

Aaron Apr 27, 2025

@Nonilex And pooled for what purpose, precisely?

grechaw Apr 27, 2025

@hosford42 @Nonilex https://www.palantir.com/

Palantir

Foundational Software of Tomorrow. Delivered Today.™

Palantir

Aaron Apr 27, 2025

@grechaw @Nonilex After the announcement of the autism registry, backed by a guy who has openly espoused what sounds uncomfortably similar to labor camps as "treatment", I suspect it will get even more nefarious than that.

grechaw Apr 27, 2025

@hosford42 @Nonilex once this gate is open we may learn all kinds of things - one could integrate police records and domestic abuse data for example....

Aaron Apr 27, 2025

@grechaw @Nonilex True. But how likely is it that they'll share anything that gives citizens power over government, rather than vice versa?

grechaw Apr 27, 2025

@hosford42 @Nonilex Ay, the rub is that fascists know to grab and wield. Every waking day must be anti-fascist now.