Elon Promised Budget Cuts, He Delivered a Panopticon

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the secretive White House initiative founded by Elon Musk, was sold to the American public under the guise of cost-cutting. However, in reality, it has failed to deliver on its promise of reducing federal spending. After over 110 days of austerity theater, DOGE has managed to shave just a few billion dollars from annual federal spending, far short of the $2 trillion Musk had initially promised.

Musk's involvement with DOGE is poised to dwindle significantly, but the project's success in expanding the executive branch's domestic surveillance capacity cannot be overstated. Citing whistleblower complaints, Representative Gerald Connolly revealed last month that DOGE is building a "master database," a single exhaustive repository containing personal data held by numerous federal agencies, including the IRS, Social Security Administration, and Department of Health and Human Services.

The master database is part of a Trump executive order aimed at eliminating the federal government's "information silos." However, in action, DOGE's efforts to build this database are being used to deport and intimidate undocumented immigrants. The use of biometric data to track immigrants has also been reported, with DHS officials cross-referencing immigration data with SSA and IRS records.

Palantir, a data firm that creates analysis software for government surveillance, has been helping DOGE build its master database. The firm was recently awarded a $30 million contract from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to develop a new platform to track undocumented immigrants and manage deportations. This development has sparked concerns about the use of artificial intelligence models to surveil federal workers for perceived anti-Trump or anti-Musk sentiment.

The data collection operations undertaken by DOGE are not limited to undocumented immigrants. The project has also sought to gather sensitive information on millions of American citizens, including from the Social Security Administration. Files submitted in a lawsuit against the Trump administration revealed that DOGE employees already have access to Social Security numbers, contact information, and medical histories of Medicaid and Medicare recipients.

Critics argue that the creation of a master database like this would introduce acute data security threats and increase the risk of hacking and data exploitation. "The access DOGE is requesting materially increases the risk of hacking and data exploitation," warned Erie Meyer, a former technologist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in an affidavit for a lawsuit seeking to block DOGE's access to Social Security records.

There is precedent for a similar effort in recent U.S. history. Throughout the Cold War, the FBI used financial and other personal records to help build its DETCOM Program, a list of Americans who would be detained in the event of a "national emergency." Critics argue that the Privacy Act of 1974, passed amid public resistance to a proposed federal databank, remains "unfinished" due to loopholes and weaknesses.

As for why the Trump administration would lean on DOGE to accomplish its surveillance goals, it's clear that the project's creation is driven by the White House's desire to deport and intimidate undocumented immigrants. The use of tax records to help deport immigrants has already led to the resignation or dismissal of several top civil servants at the IRS. Senior civil servants at other departments have also been forced out after refusing to cooperate with DOGE.

Ultimately, the creation of a panopticon like DOGE represents a significant threat to individual privacy and civil liberties. As one civil liberties lawyer noted, "This is what we were always scared of." The infrastructure for turnkey totalitarianism is indeed there for an administration willing to break the law.