Whether you’re a politician or an aspiring social media influencer, you are among the millions of people who are saying and doing weird things just to get attention. Oversharing and flamboyance run rampant in the news and on social media. The more outrageous, the better. This is America in 2025—the year of the unabashed attention seeker. It’s thrilling and it’s cheap entertainment.
There is something clever about fabricating fanciful drama to get a following and to make a living, but your privacy is a separate, more important issue. Privacy is something we are all going to have to think about. The work begun by Elon Musk and his DOGE team is rapidly moving forward to link government databases.
The federal government knows your mother’s maiden name and your bank account numbers, your stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and your more esoteric investment vehicles. The government knows your past employment, current employment, the wages you have earned, and are currently earning. The government knows your insurance information, your mortgages past and present, your debt, and the charities you have given money to. The government knows your disability status, and in many instances, it knows your health information. It also knows your immigration status, political affiliations, and whether you have had skirmishes with the law.
The federal government has access to over 300 categories of data about you. And that’s just a start. Once data is amassed and integrated from the IRS, Social Security, D.H.S., and the Health and Human Services Department, and the Department of Education, along with municipal, county and state agencies, everything about you will be known to the Fatherland.
Trump has already signed an executive order requiring the federal government to share data across agencies. The work led by Elon Musk’s DOGE resulted in the appointment of Palantir, the data analysis and technology company funded and founded by Peter Thiel. In recent months, Palantir has received more than $113 million in federal funds to execute the technology to compile a master list of personal information on Americans. Privacy and security experts have expressed concern that the government would have enormous surveillance power and could weaponize people’s personal information.
There are no guard rails in place to stop the federal government from amassing additional information to build a complete dossier about you. Who has information about you? Google? Amazon? Your local chain grocery store? Facebook? Instagram? These entities have been tracking your buying and spending habits for years. They know what you eat and what you like to read. They know your friends, and they know your hobbies and political beliefs.
Do you hate it when your intimate partner keeps scrolling through your cell phone? It will be far worse when the federal government has access to everything about you. Just imagine how that information could be used against you.
Elon Musk might be out of the picture for now, but his team has alarmed privacy and security experts. The Trump administration has already sought to paralyze a bipartisan and independent watchdog agency that investigates national security activities. Individuals can be investigated without a warrant and without their consent or knowledge. Three Democratic-appointed members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board were told to resign or be fired, an action which stops the watchdog agency from functioning.
In the next ten years, jobs in technology, renewable energy and healthcare are projected to be in high demand. Specifically, careers in data science, cybersecurity, information security, AI/machine learning, and digital marketing are also projected to be in high demand. These are the jobs that are forming the infrastructure for the Fatherland to keep an eye on you.
Amassing data in and of itself is not a bad thing. Information used properly can detect patterns and trends for research and benefit humanity, but in the wrong hands, it can be an egregious violation of civil liberties and result in illegal incarceration.
Do you care about your privacy? Do you care about how information about you could be used against you?
Without a law, or regulation, the government can’t protect your privacy. And if that government is led by the Trump Administration, you can bet your privacy is not their priority. Quite the contrary, the Fatherland is intent on grabbing everything there is to know about you. The potential for abuse of power has never been more alarming.
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Research Sources:
NYT May 30, 2025 Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
NYT May 9, 2025 Google Agrees to Pay $1.4 Billion to Settle 2 Privacy Lawsuits
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/technology/google-texas-privacy-settlement.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
NYT Feb 24, 2025 Two Members of Privacy Watchdog, Summarily Fired by Trump, File Lawsuit
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/us/politics/trump-privacy-watchdog-firings-lawsuit.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
NYT Jan 22, 2025 Trump Seeks to Paralyze Independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Watchdog
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/us/trump-privacy-civil-liberties-oversight-board.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
NYT Dec 4, 2024 Without a Law, the Government Can’t Protect Your Privacy
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/04/opinion/thepoint/privacy-ftc-rule?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Patricia Vaccarino
Patricia Vaccarino is an accomplished writer who has written award-winning film scripts, press materials, articles, essays, speeches, web content, marketing collateral, and ten books.