Previously, I highlighted the Coast Guard’s Office of Privacy Management (CG-6P) contentedly occupies a bottleneck position between any Coast Guard program offices and data sharing. ¹

Program offices are required to submit Privacy Threshold Agreements (PTA), and upon receipt of PTAs, CG-6P works with program offices to submit as conservative an approach to data democratization as possible to the Department of Homeland Security Privacy Office (DHS Privacy). What remains uncovered is how CG-6P grew to adopt such broadly restrictive guiding tenets.

Broadly speaking, there is likely no singular event that triggered such an extremely conservative stance by CG-6P. Instead, the origins of such a stance begin when Edward Snowden exposed a massive security state. And subsequent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests highlight an American populous who is concerned with respect to government over-reach.

In addition to these larger macro conditions, the Coast Guard began its journey with modern data management with Palantir.

In contract with Palantir Technologies Incorporated, the Coast Guard utilized the Palantir Gotham Platform as their readiness system in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In April of 2020, following an influx of funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Coast Guard entered into a contract with Palantir Technologies Inc. (Palantir). The contract was entitled the:

“Coast Guard Readiness System in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic” [and] according to federal procurement records, Palantir’s tools will help the U.S. Coast Guard’s ‘Readiness System in response to [the] COVID-19 pandemic’. ²

But the Coast Guard’s Privacy Officer’s (within CG-6P) perceptions and understanding of the company Palantir and its practices began well before this contract.

A Palantir Story

Palantir was founded following the September 11th (9/11) terror attacks with defense of American interests in mind. ³

Noted uses of Palantir’s data analytics platforms and services by federal agencies include:

Track[ing] down terrorists, insurgents, drug smugglers and insider traders. ³

Over the next two decades, Palantir would work to expand their work in support of the U.S. Government, work that accelerated during the Obama Administration, and then again during the Trump Administration.

Coincidentally, in 2019, Google walked out on a contract with the Pentagon over pressure from its employees. ³

Simultaneously, Palantir:

Renewed an ICE contract worth up to $42-million and defended the program at a company town hall meeting, ³

effectively solidifying their stance in support of the U.S. Government.

Unfortunately, this is where the Coast Guard’s Privacy Officer’s distrust with Palantir began.

Personally Identifiable Information

Palantir employees suspect Palantir supports work tracking undocumented immigrants.

Palantir is allegedly enabling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s human rights violations against migrants. ⁴

On August 7th, 2019, the arrest of 680 migrant workers in Mississippi:

Was carried out by the unit of ICE that uses Palantir software to investigate potential targets and compile evidence against them. ³

Palantir’s business and revenue is tied to Palantir’s contracts with the federal government. Which makes Palantir and any questionable administrative policies by the federal government inextricably linked. Due to different positions held throughout their career, the Coast Guard Privacy Officer was all too aware of Palantir’s past actions with respect to personal information with respect to immigrants.

An Unchallenged Status Quo

Thus, as the Coast Guard began its first experiments with modern data management, it began them with Palantir. And as part of these experiments, any data analytics use cases were forced to be meticulously documented through PTAs by the Coast Guard’s Privacy Officer. Even with the intrusive oversight of CG-6P and the strict documentation PTA process, a process that ensures a maximally conservative methodology for populating a data lake with data, Palantir was met with distrust, scrutiny and ever-increasing rigor for all analysis efforts.

These views are mine and should not be construed as the views of the U.S. Coast Guard.