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.
Another one?
If a private company does it, they can “sell” the data to the government and all the government needs to see it is pay.
If the government has the data, then there is laws and regulations about how they use it.
Like most things trump does, the problem already existed, most people were just ignorant until someone as stupid as trump tried to trick them.
That’s why we keep seeing people acting shocked that trump is doing what’s been done for decades. The problem is they tend to act like trump and refuse to accept that they realized late. But at least they’re finally starting to notice
Can’t the government just force these private companies to give them their data?
Folks: you gotta stop saying Trump Trump Trump. He doesn’t personally give a shit about any database. The capitalist oligarchy that put him in office does. He’s not a great man but the money behind him is massive. Don’t be fooled.
I understand this and to a certain extent it’s true, but the tendency to say everything is bad because of one guy is preventing actual change because it’s not one guy, it is the structure.
Lol… “the capitalist oligarchy”?
Is the GOP. Trump is the shitty, dilapidated face of the GOP, so people say Trump sometimes.
Oversimplification of the problems we face is a mistake. You can’t blame the economic system for corruption when corruption can take place so easily in virtually any system.
Historically capital captured democrats supported these types of initiatives in the past, such as the patriot act and its renewals, as well as increased funding to the institutions that implemented Prism.
Both sides are very much beholden to capital interests, so it’s accurate to call it capitalist oligarchs.
Oh, I’m not a fan of the democrats. Fuck 'em.
But what’s your alternative? Do you think corruption vanishes when capitalism crumbles?
Sweet summer child, history does not agree with your platitudinous outlook.
I fucking hate the American corporate system. I hate what they do to everyone, myself included. I’m not even against changing that system.
But that alone won’t solve this problem… If you believe otherwise, I have a bridge I’d like to share with you.
My comment is in response to the idea that only the GOP are ‘The capitalist Oligarchy’, my point is both sides are fucked, the Democrats just slow down the fucking.
But what’s your alternative?
I think building up an alternative system within our current one so that there’s not a power vacuum when it all collapses is the best path forward. This is known as Prefiguration. Ideally, we’d prefigure towards a libertarian socialist society, much like was practiced in Catalonia in the 30’s, and as depicted in The Dispossessed.
It’s not really a secret.
And the President is a pig-faced child-raping traitor.
Put that in the database, too.
It’s already happening. They just want to legalize it for other use.
There is no single database for all of this information (but thanks to Palantir there will be for all of this and more), so that is definitely new.
The tip of the authoritarian easy button iceberg:
•The Central Intelligence Agency has been granted increased access to domestic law enforcement databases, further blurring the line between foreign intelligence and domestic policing.
•The so-called Department of Government Efficiency got direct access to Treasury Department payment systems, including Social Security numbers, names, and birthdays, according to a whistleblower.
•Immigration and Customs Enforcement got access to Medicaid recipients’ data and banking information.
•The Transportation Security Administration is now sharing biometric passenger info with immigration enforcement, turning every airport check-in into a potential trap.
It depends on how you want to define “database” as to whether or not this already existed. Traditional database like a SQL database… Probably. But… Look into the Utah Data Center.
Gotta thank Oracle too. Ellison/Oracle has been pushing multiple countries to do this consolidation, not just the US
They already have. Thats what DOGE was for. The massive data centers are critical infrastructure for the AI surveillance state.
No one probably told him about the ones that already exist. That or he’s jealous someone else already made it.
i remember in 2016 when the republican database of citizens leaked. it had like 25 variables per person. i downloaded it (i think i might still have it) and it was about as right as the algorithm that thinks i’m a radiological oncologist.
all it had correct about me was my address.
10 years later their tools are unfathomably better.
the algorithm still thinks i’m a radiological oncologist.
I think you misread it, it actually now thinks that you’re a radical oncologist
Have you considered the possibility?
i have, but i cannot get enough cocaine to survive med school. or rather, that much cocaine would kill me
Another one? How many databases do they need us in?
Lmao fun fact everyone, you are already in many massive secret government databases and have been for years, long predating Trump
If I’ve been doing anything right I’m already in several.
Doubtless that would be bad if Trump could read.
Ultimately this sounds fucking stonks for the so-called private prison industry.
Most people want to put him through a wall.
