Doge Is Building a Master Database to Surveil and Track Immigrants
a year ago
- #privacy
- #immigration
- #surveillance
- Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is building a master database at DHS to track undocumented immigrants.
- DOGE is integrating data from multiple agencies, including SSA, IRS, and voter records, raising privacy concerns.
- The database could be used to surveil, geolocate, and track immigrants in near real-time.
- DOGE has accessed sensitive immigration data, including biometric information, and plans to expand data collection.
- Experts warn of potential privacy violations and misuse of data for repressive goals.
- The Trump administration supports data centralization, with an executive order facilitating inter-agency data sharing.
- DOGE operatives have gained access to USCIS systems, including refugee and asylum seeker data.
- Voting data from Pennsylvania and Florida has been uploaded to the USCIS data lake.
- Oversight for data protection has been reduced, with cuts to key DHS offices.
- DOGE’s efforts include creating a 'mega API' for centralized data access, possibly hosted on Palantir’s Foundry.
- Concerns include false positives in data matching leading to wrongful deportations and a centralized federal database on all individuals.