AI-Powered Surveillance Is Turning the United States into a Digital Police State
Fighting for digital privacy has never been more important. The Trump administration has empowered big tech surveillance companies like Palantir and Babel Street to aggregate Americans' personal data into massive government databases. This includes the collection and sharing of precise location information that makes it easy for police and federal agencies to track people, including at protests and while peacefully observing ICE agents.
Palantir and Babel Street don't only collect and aggregate huge quantities of public and nonpublic information about ordinary Americans. They also apply machine learning algorithms to look for patterns in the information, pull out so-called "suspicious activity"— like criticism of the Trump administration—and automate profiling and surveillance.
According to recent reporting from 404 Media, Palantir’s ICE app, called ELITE, “populates a map with potential deportation targets, brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a ‘confidence score’ on the person’s current address.” The State Department is already using similar technologies as part of its "catch and revoke" program, targeting U.S. visa holders. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has extended these social media surveillance practices to visa applicants, effectively screening immigrants based on their political expression.
