AI Endgame: AI company Palantir has access to most U.S. government data via DOGE

Newsletter #33

May 09, 2025

https://debbiecoffey.substack.com/p/ai-endgame-ai-company-palantir-has
May 9, 2025

By Debbie Coffey, AI Endgame

For several years, I’ve been researching the increasingly extreme surveillance methods being perpetrated on everyone on the planet. One of the biggest surveillance companies is Palantir, co-founded by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, and others.

As a reminder, AI Endgame newsletter #27 discussed details about Palantir.

Just a heads up: I’m cramming a lot of information into this newsletter today, because we really need to know and understand what’s going on in order to take appropriate actions, like urging our Congressional representatives to wake the hell up, find solutions, and take actions. So, grab a cup of coffee, and buckle up for the ride.

As if I weren’t already alarmed enough at the extent to which privately owned AI companies are infiltrating our government agencies, my concern reached a whole new level with news that Palantir, also a data mining company, was awarded a NO-BID contract to build a big database for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), called the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System (ImmigrationOS). [1]

WIRED magazine reported that DOGE is actually building a master database that will merge all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration databases, and upload data from outside agencies, including the Social Security Administration. [2]

I also learned that Palantir is helping DOGE build a database for the IRS, and plans to compare IRS data to all the data obtained from the Social Security Administration, Health and Human Services, the Veterans Administration and other government agencies. [3]

DOGE has already accessed data from about 24 federal agencies.

In other words, DOGE is building one big database containing data from most, if not all, U.S. government agencies. DOGE and Palantir, and their personnel, will have instantaneous access to all of your medical records, tax records, biometric data, voting data, and other government records. [4]

WIRED magazine notes “The scale at which DOGE is seeking to interconnect data, including sensitive biometric data, has never been done before, raising alarms with experts who fear it may lead to disastrous privacy violations for citizens…” [5]

DOGE operates with little, if any, transparency, oversight, or accountability.

Palantir is not just riding on DOGE’s coattails. Palantir and DOGE are marching down this road hand-in-hand.

Risky Business

DOGE has plans to store all of the data from U.S. government agencies in the cloud

(Where it could be hacked.)

The sensitive personal data in DOGE’s database will include the personal information of our high-ranking military leaders, government officials, military personnel (like Navy Seals), intelligence personnel (FBI, CIA), and even ICE agents. If hacked, this DOGE data can be used to compromise or harm our government and military personnel and their families.

Gabe Lezra, policy and advocacy director at State Democracy Defenders Action, told The Independent that what’s happening “should horrify every American.”

Lezra added“…malicious foreign actors will immediately make this database their number one target.” [6]

Do DOGE & Palantir personnel have security clearances?

The federal government requires federal employees, military personnel, and contractors to obtain U.S. Government-issued security clearances to access confidential, secret, or top secret data and information. The process of obtaining a security clearance involves extensive background checks, which includes searches for criminal records, financial history, foreign contacts, and other potential security risks. [7]

After obtaining a security clearance, a person can typically only access the data necessary for their specific tasks. [8] They don’t have access to EVERYTHING.

Even with security clearances, there have been instances when individuals have betrayed our country. For example, Robert Hanssen was an FBI agent who, starting in 1985, leaked top secrets to Moscow for nearly 20 years. Hanssen’s betrayal cost many lives. [9]

So, you can imagine the increased risk to our national security because DOGE and Palantir personnel potentially have far-reaching access to massive amounts of sensitive data regarding U.S. citizens, businesses, and government activities, but don’t have adequate security clearances.

DOGE personnel have already accessed classified records.

Rhode Island Congressman Gabe Amo noted that “DOGE employees, without proper security clearances, sought to gain access to secure systems containing classified information. When the Director of Security at USAID and his deputy did their duty and denied access in order to protect the integrity of the agency’s classified data, DOGE employees threatened to call U.S. Marshals…The USAID security officials were subsequently placed on administrative leave and the DOGE personnel gained access to the agency’s classified systems.”

Government officials have questioned if DOGE staffers have security clearances.

Many DOGE employees previously worked for Palantir or Elon Musk’s companies. [10]

For example, Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old DOGE staffer who goes by “Big Balls” online, worked a few months at Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink. Coristine established at least five different companies in the last four years.

One of the companies Coristine founded in 2021 (when he was about 16 years old), was Tesla.Sexy LLC, a company that controls dozens of web domains, including at least two Russian-registered domains. One of those domains, which is still active, offers a service called Helfie, an AI bot for Discord servers targeting the Russian market.

Coristine also controls the domain faster.pw. Although the website is currently inactive, an archived version from 2022 shows content in Chinese that stated the service helped provide “multiple encrypted cross-border networks.”

In 2022, Coristine also worked briefly at Path Network, a network monitoring firm recognized for hiring reformed blackhat hackers.

A longtime former US intelligence analyst, told WIRED “There's little chance that he could have passed a background check for privileged access to government systems.”

Joseph Shelzi, a former US Army intelligence officer who managed the security clearances of units under his command, told WIRED “Foreign connections, whether it's foreign contacts with friends or domain names registered in foreign countries, would be flagged by any agency during the security investigation process.” [11]

What are some risks of granting access to U.S. government data to DOGE or Palantir personnel?

Leaks.

DOGE staffer Marko Elez, who has worked at Musk’s SpaceX and X, was granted privileges at the U.S. Treasury Department, including the ability to not just read, but to write code, on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager (PAM) and Secure Payment System (SPS) at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS), an agency that, according to Treasury records, paid out $5.45 trillion in fiscal year 2024. The payments processed by BFS include federal tax returns, Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income benefits, and veterans’ pay.

Talking Points Memo confirmed that Treasury employees were concerned that Elez had made “extensive changes” to code within the Treasury system.[12]

An internal audit of Elez's work at the Treasury Department later uncovered that he improperly sent a spreadsheet of personally identifiable information to two General Services Administration (GSA) officials.

In a court ruling on Feb. 21, 2025, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas blocked DOGE access to Treasury data, stating "a real possibility exists that sensitive information has already been shared outside of the Treasury Department, in potential violation of federal law." [13]

I was able to find an online, redacted version of a 2015-2016 Palantir License and Services Agreement and a Statement of Work issued by ICE. [14]

Although Palantir does “background checks,” I couldn’t find any requirements for U.S. government security clearances for Palantir personnel within these documents. I could only find an assurance that only “authorized” Palantir personnel would have access to the ICE database.

Who “authorizes” them, and what standards need to be met? This sounds like a pretty low bar to hurdle.

Here’s what I’m wondering: Palantir co-founder and Chairman of the Board, Peter Thiel, likely has access to everything. Does he have a security clearance? Palantir co-founder and CEO, Alex Karp, likely has access to everything. Does he have a security clearance? [15]

More troubling, Palantir’s Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, Shyam Sankar, likely has access to everything. Does he have a security clearance?

As a reminder from my past newsletter about Palantir, Software company 12 Inc. accused Palantir of “misappropriating” its intellectual property through a Florida shell company that claimed to be a private eye firm and was registered to a family member of Shyam Sankar, who was then Palantir’s Director of Business Development.

What a coincidence, right?

This shell company licensed 12 Inc. software and development tools, and sent them to Palantir, for four years. I2 Inc. sued Palantir in federal court, alleging fraud, conspiracy, and copyright infringement. Palantir paid 12 Inc. almost $10 million to settle the lawsuit. [16]

Dangers of DOGE

DOGE is not an official government agency. DOGE was not created by an act of Congress.

DOGE is using the excuse that the “centralized” ICE database will allow them to quickly build "targeting lists" that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can use to find and deport illegal immigrants.

For now.

But DOGE is merging many government databases into one centralized database and is collecting the data on ALL Americans.

Why does DOGE need to obtain all of YOUR personal information?

Will this one centralized DOGE database be used to target U.S. citizens in the future? And, under what pretexts?

Will this DOGE database be used to target political opponents, journalists, or certain religious or ethnic groups?

Will this DOGE database be used to target you?

What will the future hold?

Years ago, if I had told my Dad that a couple of guys from Apartheid South Africa (Elon Musk and Peter Thiel) would be controlling our government, he would’ve said I had rocks in my head. But if you look at the power, access, and control that Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are exerting within our government, especially with DOGE and Palantir, this is exactly what is happening.

How much worse will this become in the future?

Although Elon Musk is supposedly “leaving” Washington, D.C., he’ll likely only reduce the amount of time he spends there while he hides behind the scenes at his compound in West Lake Hills, Texas (a suburb of Austin), or at his new city: Starbase, Texas. [17] [18]

Considering Palantir’s extensive work on, and access to, DOGE and U.S. government agency databases, at the very least, we need to make sure the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, know the names of all DOGE and Palantir personnel who have “authorized” access to our government’s data, and require that they all have U.S. government-issued security clearances.

Find links to all past AI Endgame newsletters HERE.

What you can do:

Find out how to contact your Congressional representatives here:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Find out how to contact your Senators here:

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?Class=1

Please support (and if you can, make donations) to organizations fighting for AI Safety:

Pause AI

https://pauseai.info/

Center for Humane Technology

https://www.humanetech.com/who-we-are

[1] file:///C:/Users/wildh/Downloads/LSJ+Exceeding+SAT+-+ICM+70CTD022FR0000170+-+P00006_Redacted.pdf