The Trump administration is on its way to creating every authoritarian’s dream: a centralized database containing intimate details about every resident of this country, fully searchable by artificial intelligence. This powerful tool would empower the government to conduct previously unimagined levels of surveillance and harassment against its own people.

Freedom of the Press Foundation is suing the administration for documents behind the database. We know that this isn’t just something that the Trump administration would exploit; once built, it’s unlikely any administration could resist the urge to weaponize our personal information.

This nightmare privacy scenario began one year ago, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order that expanded data sharing across the federal government. The administration touted the order, “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,” as a way to target fraud within a supposedly bloated government.

The order was no such thing.

  • lechekaflan
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    I’m afraid Germany hasn’t learned anything from him: In the state where I live, the state government unfortunately decided late last year to implement Palantir

    There are people who perceive immigrants as threats, especially states in the former East Germany.

    • DandomRude@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      22 hours ago

      Yes, that’s definitely true, and it’s the same irrational fear of the unfamiliar that you find almost everywhere in the world. This is particularly absurd in rural areas of eastern Germany, because there are actually very few foreigners there.