By Quinn Que
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV
From the sleek offices of Silicon Valley to the shadowy world of government surveillance, one company has quietly become a singularly powerful player in the global intelligence apparatus: Palantir Technologies. This startup, titled after the all-seeing orbs from Lord of the Rings, contracts with the United States government to do enhanced surveillance both at home and abroad. As revelations about its capabilities continue to emerge, a troubling question looms: Has the villainous entity from a different novel, the infamous Big Brother from 1984, finally arrived in the real world, wrapped in sleek software and venture capital funding?
Foundations of Modern Surveillance
Palantir’s transformation from a startup to a surveillance powerhouse becomes clearer when examining leaked documents from Edward Snowden, which reveal the company’s deep integration with intelligence agencies. Rather than simply selling software, Palantir helped construct the very infrastructure that enables unprecedented surveillance capabilities. The company’s Gotham platform integrates with XKEYSCORE, the NSA’s expansive data collection program, to capture “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”.
This technical integration represents more than a vendor relationship—it’s a fundamental partnership that has shaped modern surveillance architecture. As one intelligence analyst noted in leaked documents, the system is “idiot-proof” and enables capabilities analysts never imagined possible. The collaboration was so successful that when asked what Palantir couldn’t do, one analyst’s response was telling:
However we ask, Palantir [will] answer.
From Intelligence Agencies to Every Street Corner
The scope of Palantir’s influence extends far beyond federal intelligence agencies. A user manual obtained through public records requests reveals how local law enforcement agencies utilized Palantir Gotham. Through fusion centers with the Department of Homeland Security, intelligence hubs aggregate data from multiple sources, creating a holistic feed for government surveillance.
The capabilities available to police are both extensive and concerning. According to the manual, officers can begin with minimal information about a person and quickly access intimate details of their lives. With just a name associated with a license plate, police can use automatic plate reader data to create a complete account of where someone has traveled over a given time. The system can also provide email addresses, phone numbers, current and previous addresses, bank account info, social security numbers, business relationships, family relationships, and physical descriptions from driver’s license records.
Perhaps most troubling is the system’s ability to map out a person’s family members and business associates, potentially subjecting innocent individuals to surveillance simply through their connections to a person of interest. This creates what researchers have termed a “secondary surveillance network” that extensively catalogs relationships between individuals, including those not suspected of any crime.
Privacy Paradox
The disconnect between Palantir’s public messaging and its actual operations reveals a troubling contradiction. Co-founder Alex Karp once told Forbes that he “didn’t sign up for the government to know when I smoke a joint or have an affair,” and the company’s website maintains an entire section on privacy and civil liberties, stating that forcing society to choose between freedom and safety is “a false choice”.
Yet the Snowden documents and police manuals paint a different picture. When Palantir established the Palantir Council of Advisors on Privacy and Civil Liberties in 2012 to address growing criticism, the body proved ineffective. Stanford privacy scholar Omer Tene, a former council member, claimed to be “unaware of ‘any specific relationship, agreement, or project’ [with the government]” when asked about Palantir’s intelligence work, suggesting that even internal oversight mechanisms lack meaningful knowledge of the company’s most concerning activities.
2025 Escalation: Republicans Sound the Alarm
The surveillance concerns reached a new level of urgency in 2025 when President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to remove “unnecessary barriers” to data consolidation. Palantir had expanded the reach of its artificial intelligence product within the US government, potentially building an interagency database that would merge huge sets of government information on Americans, from medical to financial.
Response from Republican lawmakers has been surprisingly sharp. “It’s dangerous,” Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told Semafor.
When you start combining all those data points on an individual into one database, it really essentially creates a digital ID. And it’s a power that history says will eventually be abused.
Davidson’s criticism was striking, ironically comparing the proposed database to a different Tolkien trinket, the One Ring sought by chief villain Sauron: “The only good thing to do with One Ring to Rule Them All is to destroy the Ring.” Other GOP lawmakers have echoed these concerns. “The concern out there will always be: If you had the wrong people in government, are there protections to make sure that privacy is protected?” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, stated.
The potential surveillance overreach represents one of the very few areas where congressional Republicans have publicly challenged Trump’s agenda in his second term. One House Republican aide was even more direct: “This is the first time in a while I’ve thought, ‘Oh boy, this is really bad.”
The concerns have also created unusual bipartisan unity. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, said,
Americans should be extremely alarmed that the Trump administration is creating a central government database with our sensitive financial, health, and personal information.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, is “extremely concerned about the reports and seeking more information from the administration on what Palantir is up to”.
Davidson said he hopes to mount a bipartisan push to include language that would shut down the effort in legislation reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to lapse next year.
Capabilities, Current Operations, and Conflicting Statements
The technical sophistication of Palantir’s systems continues to expand. Palantir has worked with DOGE at the IRS this year on database construction, while the company’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement includes an effort to get “near real-time visibility” of migrants who might self-deport out of the country.
The police manual reveals how this translates to ground-level operations. Officers can use histogram tools to find correlations and trends in behavior, create heat maps showing concentrations of activity, and build comprehensive timelines of a person’s movements and associations. The system’s “Object Explorer” allows comprehensive analysis and visualization of dozens of different data points simultaneously.
Faced with mounting criticism, Palantir has pushed back against reports of expanded surveillance. Palantir said in a statement on Twitter (also known as X) that a recent New York Times report “is blatantly untrue.” The company is “not surveilling Americans,” CEO Alex Karp later told CNBC.
However, Karp’s previous statements suggest a more aggressive corporate philosophy. CEO Alex Karp said on an earnings call earlier this year that the company wants “to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them.”
Who will control Big Brother?
Palantir and its controversial practices represent a critical facet of the larger debate over digital surveillance and privacy rights. Unlike other issues like trade, few Republicans see data consolidation as a critical priority for Trump. So there’s a real possibility that they decide this is an area where they can afford to assert themselves.
However, the technical complexity of the issues and the relative secrecy surrounding Palantir’s operations present challenges for effective oversight. Half a dozen Republicans who have previously spoken out about civil liberties, including Rep. Nancy Mace, said this week that they didn’t know enough yet about the administration’s database-building plans with Palantir to form an opinion.
The Palantir phenomenon forces us to confront an uncomfortable reality: the infrastructure for comprehensive surveillance already exists and is being actively expanded. The company’s integration with intelligence agencies, local law enforcement, and now potentially across all federal agencies creates a seamless surveillance network that spans multiple levels of government.
We’re no longer wondering if or when Big Brother will arrive, but whether democratic institutions can develop effective oversight mechanisms before surveillance capabilities completely outpace constitutional protections and civil liberties. As lawmakers from both parties grapple with these challenges, the stakes couldn’t be higher for American privacy and the future of democratic governance in the digital age.
This crucial juncture may represent the last opportunity to establish meaningful boundaries around government surveillance before they become too entrenched to meaningfully constrain. It’s still decidedly unclear if that opportunity will be seized, to say nothing of how long the window will remain open to do so.
Curtis Scoon is the founder of ScoonTv.com Download the ScoonTv App to join our weekly livestream every Tuesday @ 8pm EST!
