Lambert here: Wired’s Makena Kelly interviewed at Democracy Now by Amy Goodman (and sidekick Juan Gonzales).
AMY GOODMANL Thiel’s company Palantir, what it’s doing?
MAKENA KELLY: Yeah, sure. So, just a few months ago, we started hearing about databases within DHS and IRS, SSA, across government, being linked together. The purpose, at the time, was very unclear. But from my reporting and reporting that I’ve done with my colleague Vittoria Elliott, we’ve learned that it seems as if this is a process to mix data from government agencies that immigrants often report to, so IRS and tax data, all these kinds of things that can track their most recent addresses and things like that into one database that already — you know, USCIS has a tremendous amount of data on anyone seeking, you know, any kind of — to immigrate into this country. And so, the Palantir process, with its software Foundry, basically becomes the window for all of this data and allows folks at DHS, and maybe even at other agencies — we’re not quite sure yet — to submit queries and to find information and link it together about folks all across the country.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what kind of checks are there on this merging of data systems?
MAKENA KELLY: Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, at this point, we don’t really know for sure what the checks are. In some cases, these contracts haven’t even been signed yet. And it’s a big — right now it’s a big idea that is playing out within agencies, individual agencies. So, we’ve seen it, this unification of data process, happening at IRS. There’s been some discussion about bringing it to SSA and DHS. But it’s still very much cropping up in individual agencies, and we haven’t really heard exactly if there is some kind of master plan and how that could be regulated and what oversight would look like in this case.
MAKENA KELLY: And so, it seems as if this process has shifted, instead of building one giant database — right? — but to unifying data at every single agency. So, we’re seeing that in my reporting at IRS. They’re unifying all the data there to make it more easily accessible and accessed. And then, also, if you have a Foundry system at IRS and have one at DHS, those can talk to each other incredibly easily, which means you don’t necessarily have to centralize all that data. You’re able to query a variety of data systems across government if these systems are interoperable, which it looks like they could be.
Add new comment