1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

The Trump administration's data collection and sharing initiative through Palantir raises grave concerns over privacy rights violations and potential misuse of sensitive personal information. Building a massive database containing detailed private data like financial records, medical claims, and disability status from across federal agencies is an alarming overreach that threatens civil liberties. This unchecked consolidation of Americans' personal data creates opportunities for exploitation, discrimination, and surveillance overreach that could chill free speech and disproportionately harm vulnerable communities. History has shown how such centralized data systems can be abused by authoritarian regimes to target dissidents and minority groups. Strong data privacy laws exist to protect citizens from having their information gathered and commingled without consent or judicial oversight. Circumventing these vital protections is a subversion of democratic principles and an assault on Constitutional rights. The public deserves full transparency about the scope of this Palantir database project and iron-clad assurances that strict safeguards are in place to prevent abuse. Preserving civil liberties must take precedence over any perceived efficiencies gained through unrestrained data consolidation. I urge an immediate halt to this program until rigorous privacy impact assessments are conducted and adequate public oversight mechanisms are implemented to protect against violations of Americans' privacy rights.