The Trump administration is now trying to connect the dots of that disparate information. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the “consolidation” of these segregated records, raising the prospect of creating a kind of data trove about Americans that the government has never had before, and that members of the president’s own party have historically opposed.
The effort is being driven by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and his lieutenants with the Department of Government Efficiency, who have sought access to dozens of databases as they have swept through agencies across the federal government. Along the way, they have elbowed past the objections of career staff, data security protocols, national security experts and legal privacy protections.
So far, the Musk group’s success has varied by agency and sometimes by the day…
The categories of information shown here are drawn from 23 data systems holding personal information about the public across eight agencies that Mr. Musk’s aides are seeking to access, according to people familiar with their efforts as well as internal documents and court depositions. In all, The New York Times identified more than 300 separate fields of data about people who live in the U.S. contained in these data systems.
- Academic rank
- Active-duty military status
- Addiction treatment records
- Adjusted gross income
- Adopted child’s gender
- Adopted child’s name
- Adopted child’s placement agency
- Adoption credit claimed
- Adoption Taxpayer ID Number
- Adoptive parent name
- Adoptive placement agency
- Adoptive placement agency Employer ID Number
- Adverse credit history
- Alimony paid
- Alimony received
- Amount of federal taxes owed
- Amount of federal taxes refunded
- Amount of institutionally provided financing owed
- Amount of Medicare conditional payment
- Amount of student loan debt
- Area of medical residency
- Area of study
- Auto insurance effective date of coverage
- Auto insurance policy number
- Automobile medical policies
- Bank
- Bank information (for your Medicare providers)
- Biometric identifiers
- Birth certificate
- Business address
- Business bad debt
- Business bank account number
- Business closures
- Business debts canceled or forgiven
- Business depreciation
- Business entity type
- Business income/loss
- Business rents paid
- Business repairs and maintenance costs
- Business taxpayer ID number
- Cancellation of debt
- Capital gain/loss
- Casualty and theft losses from federal declared disaster
- Charitable contributions
- Child and dependent care tax credit claimed
- Child support received
- Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship eligibility indicator
- Citizenship status
- Classification of instructional programs code
- Clean vehicle credit claimed
- Company named in consumer complaint
- Consumer product complaints (including mortgages, loans, credit cards)
- Cost of goods sold (for business)
- Country of birth
- Country of citizenship
- Course of study completion date
- Course of study completion status
- Course of study program length
- Credit and debit card numbers
- Credit report information
- Criminal history
- Date of accident, injury or illness
- Date of birth
- Date of death
- Date of hiring
- Date of original divorce or separation agreement
- Dates of employment
- Dates of medical service
- Deductible part of self-employment tax
- Degrees
- Delinquency on federal debt status
- Dependency status
- Dependent names
- Dependent of a resident alien
- Dependent of U.S. citizen/resident alien
- Dependent relationship to you
- Dependent Social Security numbers
- Dependent/spouse of a nonresident alien holding a U.S. visa
- Device ID
- Digital assets received as ordinary income
- Disability entitlement
- Disadvantaged background status
- Disability status
- Dividend income
- Driver’s license or state ID number
- Earnings
- Education and training (for unemployment claims)
- Education tax credits claimed
- Educator expenses paid
- Effective tax rate
- Employee benefit plans offered (for business)
- Employee ID number
- Employer account number
- Employer address
- Employer name
- Employer reported total employees
- Employer-provided adoption benefits
- Employer-reported total wages paid by quarter
- Employment information
- Employment status
- Employment termination dates
- Energy efficient commercial buildings deduction
- Energy efficient home improvement credit claimed
- Entitlement benefits held by related Social Security number holders
- Expected student enrollment
- Failure to file taxes penalty
- Failure to pay taxes penalty
- Family court records
- Family size
- Farm income/loss
- Federal Employer ID Number
- Federal housing assistance received
- Federal income tax withheld
- Financial aid profile
- First-time homebuyer credit claimed
- Foreign activities
- Foreign address
- Foreign bank and financial accounts
- Foreign business partners
- Foreign coverage credits
- Foreign earned income exclusion
- Foreign interests in business
- Foreign tax ID number
- Free or reduced-price school lunch received
- Full name
- Funding arrangements of employer group health plan
- Gambling income
- Gender
- Gross business profit
- Gross business receipts or sales
- Health insurance claim number
- Health insurance effective date of coverage
- Health insurance policy number
- Health provider name and number
- Health savings account deduction claimed
- Health supplier name and number
- High school
- Higher ed institutions designated to receive FAFSA form
- Home/mailing address
- Home/personal phone number
- Homeless status
- Hospitalization records
- Household employee name
- Household employee Social Security number
- Household employee wages
- Incarcerated student indicator flag
- Incarceration status
- Income and assets (for student aid eligibility)
- Inventions
- Investment interest received
- IP address
- I.R.A. deduction
- Job title
- Jury duty pay
- Late tax filing interest
- Level of postsecondary education study
- Login security questions and answers
- Login.gov password
- Marginal tax rate
- Marital status
- Marriage certificate
- Medicaid received
- Medicaid waiver payments
- Medical and dental expenses paid
- Medical claims payments
- Medical diagnoses
- Medical notes
- Medical records number
- Medical residency date completed
- Medicare invoices (sent to your provider)
- Medicare payments received (by your provider)
- Military service credits
- Mortgage interest paid
- Mother’s maiden name
- Moving expenses
- Name/address of business partnership
- Names of other corporate officers of an LLC
- Naturalization records
- Nature of medical service
- Net farm profit/loss
- Nonresident alien status
- Nonresident alien student, professor or researcher
- Number of agricultural employees employed
- Number of employees
- Number of family members in college
- Occupation title or code
- Olympic and Paralympic medals, prize money
- Ordinary business income
- Parent demographic information
- Parent educational attainment
- Parent killed in the line of duty
- Parental income and assets (for student aid eligibility)
- Parents’ demographic information
- Passport number
- Pell Grant additional eligibility indicator
- Pell Grant collection status indicator
- Pell Grant status
- Personal and professional references (for federal job applicants)
- Personal bank account number
- Personal bank account routing number
- Personal email address
- Personal tax payment history
- Personal taxpayer ID number
- Photographic identifiers
- Photographs of government-issued IDs
- Physician name and number
- Place of birth
- Plans for federal grant funding (including schedules, diagrams, pictures)
- Postsecondary education institution
- Power of attorney name and address
- Prescription drug coverage
- Principal business activity
- Principal business product or service
- Prior status as a legally emancipated minor
- Prior status as a ward of the court
- Prior status as an orphan
- Prior status in a legal guardianship
- Prior status in foster care
- Private health insurer/underwriter group name
- Private health insurer/underwriter group number
- Private health insurer/underwriter name
- Prizes and award income received
- Psychological or psychiatric health records
- Qualified electric vehicle credit claimed
- Railroad retirement credits
- Reason for separation (for unemployment claims)
- Relationships to other Social Security number holders
- Rental management fees paid
- Rental, royalty, partnership, etc. income/loss
- Rents received
- Residential clean energy credit claimed
- Royalties received
- Salaries and wages earned
- Salary history (for federal job applicants)
- Scholarship and fellowship grants received
- Seasonable employer status
- Self-employed health insurance deduction
- Self-employment tax
- Self-photograph
- Sex
- Social Security date of filing
- Social Security number
- Social Security numbers of other corporate officers of an LLC
- Social Security primary insurance amount
- Social Security/S.S.I. representative payee
- Sources and amounts of non-Social Security income
- Sources of income
- Spousal income and assets (for student aid eligibility)
- Spouse demographic information
- Spouse of a resident alien
- Spouse of U.S. citizen/resident alien
- Spouse’s demographic information
- Spouse’s Social Security number
- Standard employee identifier
- State and local taxes paid
- Stock options received
- Student entitlement
- Student loan forbearances
- Student loan amount
- Student loan balances
- Student loan cancellations
- Student loan claims
- Student loan collections
- Student loan defaults
- Student loan deferments
- Student loan disbursement dates
- Student loan disbursements
- Student loan ID
- Student loan interest deduction
- Student loan overpayments
- Student loan promissory notes
- Student loan refunds
- Student loan repayment plan
- Student loan status
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance received
- Supplemental Security Income eligibility
- Supplemental Security Income eligibility amount
- Supplemental Security Income payment amounts
- Tax filing status (married, individual, filing jointly)
- Tax preparer tax ID number
- Taxable dependent care benefits
- Taxable income
- Taxable interest income
- Taxable I.R.A. distributions
- Taxable pension distributions
- Taxable Social Security benefits
- Taxable state/local refunds
- Taxes paid on wagers
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families received
- Tests for H.I.V./AIDS
- Tip income
- Total number of dependents
- Total number of tax exemptions
- Total payments to all employees
- Total tax owed and paid
- Type of bank account (checking/savings)
- U.S. resident alien status
- U.S. visa expiration date
- U.S. visa number
- Unaccompanied alien child status
- Unaccompanied alien children sponsor status
- Unemployment compensation received
- Vehicle identifiers
- Veteran disability determination dates
- Veteran status
- Visa expiration date
- Wages earned while incarcerated
- WIC nutrition assistance received
- Work email address
- Work experience (for federal job applicants)
- Work phone number
- Workers’ compensation coverage
- Workers’ compensation offset
The notion of connecting government data systems is much harder than it sounds, former officials said.
When the I.R.S. tried to study if it could identify people eligible for the earned-income tax credit about a decade ago, it ran into different programs and data sets using different definitions for “family” and “income,” said Nina Olson, the former national taxpayer advocate at the I.R.S. from 2001 to 2019.
Try matching data across an even wider array of government systems, and the incongruities would multiply.
“The data is not fit for the purpose that you’re trying to use it for,” said Ms. Olson, the executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, which is also suing the government. “And you’ll get wrong results, and there’s consequences to those wrong results.”
Lambert here: People for whom these wrong results have consequences are, by definition, people who do not matter.
But assuming some measure of good faith—
Those Mega-API weasels at Palantir have their work cut out for them. Remember, it was Silicon Valley brain geniuses who thought “probationary employees” were “on probation.” And they’re supposed to be unifying the semantics of 334* separate fields? Let me know how that works out.
NOTE * That’s the scope of systems accessed by those thieving weasels at DOGE. The real scope would be at least an order of magnitude larger.
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