Dan Goldman Sounds Alarm About Palantir Building Massive Database For Government With All Citizens' Data

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At Thursday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) discussed a report about Palantir and U.S. citizens' data.

Transcript

00:00The gentleman yields and I now recognize the gentleman from New York, Mr. Goldman.

00:03Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

00:06I think you raise a very interesting point, Mr. Jordan, Chairman Jordan,

00:12wanting to make sure that a warrant is obtained to search Americans' data.

00:21So I recognize we're here focused on the Cloud Act, and it's an important issue.

00:26I don't dispute that.

00:28But in the times we're in, this seems quaint and intellectual, academic discussion.

00:37And in reality, what we're dealing with is an administration, current administration,

00:43that is trying to categorize, gather, and streamline data of Americans

00:55with access by a private company.

01:01Now, let me explain a little bit, and then I want to ask some questions.

01:04Many of you, I'm sure, have heard of Palantir, which is a large data company,

01:10has a lot of connections to Elon Musk, to Doge.

01:15And in March, Donald Trump issued an executive order that would increase the sharing of all unclassified data

01:25between and among federal agencies.

01:28It directed agency heads to authorize and facilitate both the intra- and inter-agency sharing

01:33and consolidation of unclassified agency records.

01:37Now, a New York Times report in May outlined in great detail how the president has employed Palantir

01:46to carry out this executive order, essentially to merge all data from all different executive branch agencies

01:55into one single database.

01:58Now, it's unclear who would control that database, who would have access to it, what searches would be done,

02:08and there seem to be no guardrails about that.

02:12Another New York Times article says that the administration, that this database,

02:18would have 314 different points of data about every American.

02:27Literally, every American, 314 various categories of data will be consolidated into one database

02:35by a private company, Palantir.

02:39Now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle often express concern about government surveillance,

02:47about ensuring that we get search warrants in the context of 702,

02:51which is a small universe of already obtained information that we know are communications with people of interest

03:02from foreign nationalities.

03:05Here, we just have every American's data put into one database with no guidelines, no restrictions.

03:16We don't know what Palantir is doing, we don't know what Doge is doing, we don't know what Elon Musk is doing.

03:23It essentially creates a one-stop shop for all Americans' data, which, as we're talking about cybersecurity,

03:30I'm sure you all agree that creates a tremendous cybersecurity risk if China or Russia were to hack this.

03:37Now, the chairman of this committee has said in the past,

03:44quote, Congress has struggled, of this subcommittee, Mr. Biggs,

03:48Congress has struggled for four years with a corrupt presidential administration,

03:52meaning the Biden administration,

03:53that further expanded the opportunities for the government to spy on its citizens.

03:59So, is there, I mean, there was nothing in the Biden administration that approximates this collection of data,

04:09this opportunity for the government to spy on its citizens.

04:14And I'm not even talking about breaking laws under the tax code

04:19and sharing tax information with immigration enforcement agencies.

04:25I'm not even talking about sharing, you know, tax, the tax information or Social Security administration information.

04:33This is just every piece of data that is out there in the government's control,

04:38consolidated with one, one private company and one database.

04:42And so, I would ask my friend Chairman Biggs to think about whether if you are truly worried about government surveillance,

04:55why are we not doing any oversight of Palantir, its contracts with the government,

05:01its consolidation of all Americans' personal information into one database and the cybersecurity risks?

05:09And I really hope, in all seriousness, that you will do oversight over that

05:13if you do truly care about government surveillance of citizens.

05:19And I yield back.

05:21The gentleman yields back.

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