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.

#Trump #law

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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