Pictured are the offices of the Internal Revenue Service. The I.R.S. has a lot of information on almost every American citizen. In recent news, we have learned that this information - and virtually all the rest of the information that the United States Government maintains on each one of us - is going to be turned over to a private company, Palantir Technologies, a data analysis and technology firm.
When I was teaching my course at UCSC on "Privacy, Technology, And Freedom," I made sure the students in my classes knew about Palantir. Here's a link that will let you see what a former employee has to say about Palantir. The YouTube clip, which is about sixteen minutes long, should make everyone nervous about what's ahead here in the United States.
PLEASE do not catalogue this information - provided as a warning - as some kind of "proof" that our "democracy" is inevitably "doomed." The shadows of authoritarianism and totalitarianism are definitely growing longer, but that should spur us to the kind of political action that I am always urging us to pursue, as opposed to convincing us that it's already "game over."
We, citizens of the United States of America have a "Palantir Problem." But, like every problem we face, we can address and eliminate it.
As I remember saying in a past blog posting, it's not ever over until we give up!
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