Our data
I've participated in conversations and debates, publishing workshops, and been on the radio for years talking about data. Since Elon Musk and DOGE have exfiltrated personally identifiable data on every person in America, the threat models of personal and organizational attacks have multiplied and morphed. He may have left the building, but he took plenty of data with him.
And while he may have left the building for the moment, our attention should not wane. Plenty of tech oligarchs with an insatiable thirst for data on you, by you, and of you are still roaming the halls of the White House and the executive branch. Palantir, in particular, which builds spy systems for other countries is now gleefully building domestic spy systems for the Department of Defense. Be clear - this company has gleefully taken taxpayer money so it can help the President, his advisors, and his lackeys spy on taxpayers. I am paying to be spied on. You are paying to be spied on.
These companies are driven by greed and they're run by humans. The enemy of your enemy may or may not be your friend in this mix. Will Palantir help the Administration spy on Musk because of previous beefs between its owners/investors and Elon? Will the company's leaders spy on the Administration to make nice with Elon? Either is possible in the completely personal and corrupt system that has long been big tech companies and is now also the US government (with its own horrid track record).
The Tesla Take Downs have had a major impact on the only thing Elon cares about as much as power, money. The latter is his source of the former. Where are the weak spots for the owners and investors of Palantir? How are we mobilizing against this?
As the federal government is sending the military after its own citizens, it may seem like worrying about one company in the surveillance state that is the USA is superfluous. It isn't. Wait a few weeks when we will start seeing reporting about the roles that the STILL NASCENT YET MIGHTY surveillance state played for informing the military and making residents vulnerable. It's already driving the ICE raids on immigrant communities. It is infrastructure for the Administration's authoritarian project, and cutting off the data to these tech companies and getting them out of the government is key to maintaining any degree of protection or privacy from our government.
Is there anything here about philanthropy? Yes. First, many immigrant rights and anti-war groups have long protested Palantir. They have the expertise that the rest of us can follow and expand on. Philanthropists who care about people and/or democracy can help these groups protect themselves digitally ($ for the expertise they need), provide support that is flexible enough for legal defense of organizations and protestors, and help these organizations (and others) not take the trojan horse gifts that are so much of tech philanthropy. Here, Palantir has perfected its model of assigning front line engineers to work with nonprofits, an approach that has always struck me as a means of letting the fox into civil socoety's key data troves. The company has also set up a foundation for "independent" research on technology and national defense (I can't imagine what they'll find? But I do expect them to look in the same places that RFK Jr. is looking for research on an autism/vaccine link).
On the ground activist groups and those who've mobilized against the companies forever are the experts. They need to hear from critical tech reporters, those on the democracy beat, those who understand surveillance (journalists on front lines of being surveilled) who can put their stories into words that mobilize the rest of us.