@teacher_rick Klopt en het gaat hier ook niet de goede kant op.

A pool of govt #data is especially powerful when combined w/private-sector data, such as… #mobile-#phone #geolocation data…could make inferences about actions, activities, or associates of…anybody perceived as a govt critic or #dissident.…The govt’s current use of combined data in service of #deportations—& its refusal to offer credible evidence of wrongdoing for some of those deported—suggests the admin is willing to use the data for #political aims.

…#data could also allow the govt or…its private-sector allies to target big swaths of the population based on a supposed attribute or trait. Maybe you have info from background checks or health studies that allows you to punish people who have seen a therapist…. Or to terminate certain…benefits to anybody who has ever shown income above a particular threshold, claiming that they obviously don’t need public benefits because they once made a high salary.
#Trump #law #privacy #InfoSec #surveillance

To a person, these experts are alarmed about the possibilities for harm, graft, & abuse. Today, they argued, #Trump is targeting #LawFirms, but #DOGE #data could allow him to target individual Americans at scale. For instance, they described how the govt…is…a #debt collector on all kinds of federal #loans. Those who struggle to repay…could be punished beyond what’s possible now, by having professional licenses revoked or…wages or bank accounts frozen.

But what can an American #authoritarian, or his private-sector accomplices, do with all the government’s #data, both alone & combined with data from the private sector? To answer this question, we spoke with former government officials who have spent time in these systems & who know what #information these agencies collect & how it is stored.

#DOGE is reportedly attempting to build a “master database”of #immigrant data to aid in #deportations; #NIH Dir Jay Bhattacharya has floated the possibility of an #autism registry (the admin quickly walked it back).America already has all the tech it needs to build a draconian #surveillance society—the conditions for such a dystopia have been falling into place slowly over time, waiting for the right #authoritarian to come along & use it to crack down on American #privacy & #freedom.
#Trump #law

That means the govt has at least some ability to map or re-create the past everyday movements of some American citizens. This is hardly even a cursory list of what is publicly known.

Advancements in #AI promise to turn this unwieldy mass of #data & metadata into something easily searchable, politically weaponizable, & maybe even profitable.

The government has tons of it, some of which is obvious—names, addresses, & census data—& much of which may surprise you. Consider, say, a limited tattoo database, created in 2014 by the National Institute of Standards & Technology, & distributed to multiple institutions for the purpose of training software systems to recognize common tattoos associated with gangs & criminal organizations.

This is a perilous moment. Rapid technological advances over the past two decades have made #DataShedding ubiquitous—whether it comes from the devices everyone carries or the platforms we use to communicate with the world. As a society, we produce unfathomable quantities of #information, & that information is easier to collect than ever before.

But that appears to be changing. Since #Trump’s 2nd inauguration, #ElonMusk & #DOGE have systematically gained #access to sensitive #data across the federal govt, & in ways people in several agencies have described…as both dangerous & disturbing. Despite DOGE’s stated mission, little efficiency seems to have been achieved. Now a new phase of Trump’s project is under way: Not only are individual agencies being breached, but the info they hold is being pooled…

And that’s only a minuscule sampling. More obscure agencies, such as the recently gutted #CFPB, keep records of corporate trade secrets, #credit reports, #mortgage info, & other sensitive #data, including lists of people who have fallen on financial hardship.

A fragile combination of decades-old laws, norms, & jungly bureaucracy has so far prevented repositories such as these from assembling into a centralized American #surveillance state.