Donald Trump's Reported Database Move Sparks Alarm: 'Dystopian'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
President Donald Trump allegedly plans on developing a database of Americans' private information, according to The New York Times.
On Friday, the Times reported that the White House had contracted Colorado-based data analytics and technology firm Palantir, co-founded by longtime Trump backer Peter Thiel, for assistance in compiling a database of personal information on American citizens.
Citing unnamed government officials and Palantir employees, the newspaper said that the company had been in talks with various government agencies regarding the project, including the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Education.
Newsweek has reached out to Palantir and the White House via email for comment.
Why It Matters
Palantir has partnered with the U.S. government in the past, but the reported expansion of its work with the Trump administration has raised concerns that this could be the precursor to surveillance of Americans on a mass scale, and accusations online that the plan mimics the actions of authoritarian states and China's "Social Credit System."
What To Know
Palantir has been deepening its partnership with the government in recent years, its software being employed by the U.S. army and, last year, through a co-partnership with Microsoft delivering its AI-powered data analytics capabilities to the intelligence community. The company saw its government revenue grow 45 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025 for a total of $373 million.
The company's stock price is up over 80 percent since Trump took office in January, and was trading at $131.78 ahead of markets opening on Monday.
As The New York Times reports, the company's software is already being employed within the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and others. Both Wired and CNN reported previously that Palantir had been enlisted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help craft a database of undocumented immigrants and expedite deportations.
U.S. President Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, on May 26, 2025. Inset: The logo of Palantir on a smartphone screen.
U.S. President Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, on May 26, 2025. Inset: The logo of Palantir on a smartphone screen.
Saul Loeb / Photo illustration byThe NYT found that the company is now speaking with various other agencies, including the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, with a focus on its Foundry product, a comprehensive data integration and analytics platform. Officials who spoke to the outlet said that the adoption of Foundry across numerous agencies would allow for the administration to seamlessly create a unified database of information across the federal government.
Trump signed an executive order in March calling for the elimination of barriers to intra-agency information sharing—"Information Silos"—which stated that "removing unnecessary barriers to federal employees accessing government data and promoting inter‑agency data sharing are important steps toward eliminating bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency."
What People Are Saying
Jason Bassler, co-founder of the government accountability-focused outlet The Free Thought Project, posted to X, formerly Twitter: "No, this Palantir database isn't like the others. It will combine: Tax filings, Student debt, Social Security, Bank accounts, Medical claims, Immigration status. No previous database system has ever centralized this much personal info across various federal agencies."
Other X users compared the reported plan to the Chinese Social Credit system, with one writing: "This database will be WEAPONIZED against us all once the Social Credit system is in place, and you can, and will become a target if you dare to dissent. Just like how China runs their society."
"Trump just hired Palantir to create a master database to surveil and harass the American people," another wrote. This is as dystopian as it gets and must be rejected by all."
Computer scientist and entrepreneur Paul Graham, following reports that Palantir was assisting the administration in tracking immigrants, wrote that the company was "building the infrastructure of the police state," and "help[ing] the U.S. government violate citizens' constitutional rights."
Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Wired in April: "The ultimate concern is a panopticon of a single federal database with everything that the government knows about every single person in this country. What we are seeing is likely the first step in creating that centralized dossier on everyone in this country."
Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar, during an earnings call in February, said: "I think DOGE is going to bring meritocracy and transparency to government, and that's exactly what our commercial business is.
"I think the work that we've done in government, it's deeply operational, it's deeply valuable, and we're pretty excited about exceptional engineers getting in there under the hood and being able to see that for a change," he added.
What Happens Next?
Neither Palantir nor the government have yet responded to The New York Times report.
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