Issue 116: Government Surveillance

Issue 116: Government Surveillance

After
DTLJ Thursday Threads
issues on
digital privacy
and
surveillance camera systems
, I’m focusing this week on the more general topic of government-sponsored or -enabled surveillance.
In an era defined by ubiquitous data collection and ever-advancing technologies, the line between public safety and individual privacy is growing alarmingly thin.
From President Trump’s executive order to dismantle inter-agency “data silos” and Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative weaving federal databases together, to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s vision of AI-powered cameras and drones monitoring citizens, the U.S. surveillance apparatus is expanding at breakneck speed.
Meanwhile, programs like the Pentagon’s “Locomotive”—which turns innocuous dating-app location pings into real-time tracking tools—and the data broker–driven sharing of driving and personal records with law enforcement underscore how private and public interests have converged to create a modern panopticon.
So that is the focus of this week’s
Thursday Threads
issue:
Trump’s executive order dismantling government data silos and Musk-led DOGE initiative fuel
fears of a U.S. surveillance state
.
More details about how
DOGE is building an Immigrant Surveillance Database
with Social Security and IRS Data.
In cases where the government doesn’t already have the data,
spy agencies want to centralize commercial data purchases
in a new one-stop portal.
1984 is here and some people want it:
Oracle’s Larry Ellison
proposes Orwellian AI camera-and-drone surveillance network, stoking privacy fears.
LexisNexis parent Relx
lobbies against data broker restrictions
amid FISA Section 702 reauthorization clash.
Dating app location data powers
Pentagon’s “Locomotive” program
to track phones worldwide
Apple sues U.K. government
over a secret order for backdoor access to encrypted data on phones, and it removes the Advanced Data Protection from U.K. market rather than giving in.
This Week I Learned
: «Leeroy Jenkins!!!!» was staged
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Trump’s Executive Order and Musk-Led DOGE Initiative Fuel Fears of a U.S. Surveillance State
In March, President Trump issued an executive order aiming to eliminate the data silos that keep everything separate. Historically, much of the data collected by the government had been heavily compartmentalized and secured; even for those legally authorized to see sensitive data, requesting access for use by another government agency is typically a painful process that requires justifying what you need, why you need it, and proving that it is used for those purposes only. Not so under Trump. This is a per…