Privacy

How This Blog’s Palantir Investigation Predicted Congressional Alarm On June 17, 2025, ten Democratic lawmakers led by Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent a formal letter to Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp, demanding answers about the company’s expanding federal contracts and what they described as a government-wide “mega-database” containing sensitive American taxpayer information. The letter raised serious concerns about potential Privacy Act violations and the creation of surveillance infrastructure that could be used to “spy on and target political enemies.” It cited over $113 million in new federal contracts under the current administration and warned that Palantir employees embedded at the IRS were helping create “a single, searchable database” of taxpayer records that would likely be shared throughout the government. ...

Foster Vance sits in his apartment at Fellowship Square Mesa, dealing with a loss that has shaken more than his emotional equilibrium. Since his wife died in February, the 82-year-old resident has struggled with something he never anticipated: his physical balance. “I recently lost my wife in February, so my balance of having somebody in the apartment disappeared,” Vance explains. “I haven’t fallen in a year and a half, and I do not want to fall.” ...