Ten Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Denver-based Palantir on Monday demanding that the technology company answer questions about its expanding federal contracts under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The letter cited a New York Times article in May that reported the Trump administration had broadened Palantir\u2019s work across the government, with the company receiving more than $113 million in federal government spending since President Donald Trump took office. Officials said the White House was laying the groundwork, partly by using Palantir technology, to consolidate data across the government so it could potentially compile a master list of personal information on Americans.<\/p>\n
The letter, which was reviewed by the Times, was drafted by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Other members of Congress who signed included Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe write to demand information\u201d about reports that Palantir is \u201cenabling and profiting from serious violations of federal law by the Trump administration, which is amassing troves of data on Americans,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on people through government databases, including their bank account numbers and medical claims. Trump could potentially use such information to police immigrants and punish critics, Democratic lawmakers and others have said. Privacy advocates, student unions and labor rights organizations have filed lawsuits to block data access.<\/p>\n
After the Times published the article about Palantir, the company said that the report \u201cis blatantly untrue\u201d and published a blog post denying it was a vendor on a project to unify databases across federal agencies.<\/p>\n
In a statement Monday, the company said: \u201cPalantir does not build surveillance technology, and we are not building a central database on Americans \u2014 nor will we.\u201d<\/p>\n