Palantir Privacy Head: Audit Trail Shows Legality of Government Data Work
There’s an audit trail showing Palantir is following privacy laws and protocols in its work with agencies like DHS and the Internal Revenue Service, the company's global privacy director said Wednesday.
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Courtney Bowman, during an event co-hosted by the American Enterprise Institute and Center for Democracy & Technology, denied allegations Palantir is working with the Department of Government Efficiency to build a master database of IRS data in violation of laws like the Privacy Act of 1974, which governs how federal agencies handle citizens' data (see 2506170056).
He said one of the company’s goals is to help modernize information technology systems for federal agencies, which the public assumes are operating in “highly sophisticated digital technology environments.”
“They’re not,” Bowman said, claiming television shows like Crime Scene Investigation give false impressions about law enforcement and government operations. Federal agencies are often working with “mainframe, green-screen systems from the 1970s and 1980s,” he said: Part of Palantir’s modernization effort is getting to “base level” data practices that comply with statutory authority.
Center for Democracy and Technology CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens accused Palantir and Bowman of distracting from the privacy issues surrounding DOGE. She cited allegations about DHS accessing taxpayer information for immigration enforcement, the Department of Agriculture using Social Security information on tens of millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants and DOJ seeking state voter rolls containing information about millions of residents. Givens noted there are at least 15 pending lawsuits against the Trump administration related to DOGE’s work.
Former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel accused the administration of unilaterally expanding the tax code to allow these data-sharing arrangements. Former Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman urged states to protect voter information for some 175 million registered voters in the U.S.
Givens said Palantir’s categorical denial of a master database or Elon Musk’s involvement feels like a “distraction.” The lack of visibility into these data practices means the public doesn’t know what’s being requested, she said.
Bowman said there are “good and bad ways” of building information systems, and there needs to be a “real conversation” about expectations. “This is a core function we think about constantly. ... Let’s not get too caught up in misconceptions that are propagated through media distribution that are trying to tell a kind of salacious story.”
Bowman claimed part of the problem is that many people are basing their opinions on privacy concepts from the era in which Congress passed the Privacy Act of 1974. People need a better understanding of how data and metadata are defined, what constitutes sharing, how it might be controlled and what oversight looks like, he said.
Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., who has been gathering public input on a potential legislative update for the Privacy Act, told us Tuesday that DOGE was the impetus for exploring how federal agencies handle citizens’ “most sensitive” data.
In addition, she raised concerns about the House Republican privacy working group, an effort to draft a comprehensive privacy bill (see 2502120049). It appears the group wants to set a weaker standard than the bipartisan privacy bill former House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., drafted with Democrats (see 2501030039), Trahan said.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said he hasn’t “heard anything” from Republicans about the comprehensive privacy bill. Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., who is leading the working group, declined to comment Tuesday.