ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants • Hacker News Board

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#211

Post by creshal » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #81

globalise83 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Key part of what you wrote: "as to the identity and location of aliens" - so whatever claim they have to access health information applies to aliens. The big question is: are they harvesting citizens' health records illegally as part of this effort, and if so, when do those responsible see jail time?

> are they harvesting citizens' health records illegally as part of this effort, and if so, when do those responsible see jail time? I’m honestly curious if this would be a Privacy Act or HIPAA violation. The article seems to be unsure on this.

They're unsure because a lot depends on the legal status of children born to non-citizen parents in the US after a executive order tried to revoke birthright citizenship: https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1538

If that EO was legal, then sharing the data is, too. If it wasn't, then it's probably a privacy violation, but the CMS isn't allowed to make that call themselves, they have to rely on court decisions for it. And challenging EOs is not trivial.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#212

Post by Quarrelsome » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

lrvick wrote: post #49

SilverBirch wrote: post #37

If I'm reading this correctly, they're just straight up violating the law. They're sharing information with ICE under an obligation to share information of aliens, but they're actually sharing everyone's information in an effort to identify aliens. That seems like a pretty slam shut case if there were any mechanism to investigate and prosecute it.

It has become quite clear in recent months that the the rule of law will not be enforced on the federal government or their allies.

If we are to learn from the brutal Soviet sanctioned forced deportations of the Baltic nations following world war 2, then justice will come but it will take time.

Once the Baltic nations gained independence they tried everyone involved in the administration of those orders, which took place without trial or oversight and often resulted in the replacement families being deported if the actual tagets could not be found.

Ofc Stalin or any of the power brokers at the time were long dead, so instead it was a parade of lower level admin workers, all who were elderly in their 80s or 90s and who at that time were young, simply doing the bidding of their employers.

The lesson: don't be a bag holder for people who will die before you leaving you to hold the responsibility for their crimes.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#213

Post by buellerbueller » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

petterroea wrote: post #6

Private surveillance is so much more scary than regular government surveillance because they have every incentive to invent new ways of surveilling you that they then try to sell to governments, or private actors who want to influence the world. It's like classic government surveillance but every company you interacted with and every app you use may at some point turn on you and use your data against you, just becaus…

Snowden should have been the warning shot.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#214

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

ardme wrote: post #143

throw0101a wrote: post #40

From the leftist-Communist rag (/s) Wall Street Journal : > It started out that way. At the beginning of 2025, 87% of ICE arrests were immigrants with either a prior conviction or a criminal charge pending, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. Only 13% of those arrested at the beginning of 2025 didn’t have either a conviction or a pending charge. > But the criminal share of apprehensions ha…

I have read the Obama era numbers are inflated because they counted turn aways at the border. It’s also a little interesting that Obama was able to be against illegal immigration without a ton of pushback. Why was that?

> interesting that Obama was able to be against illegal immigration without a ton of pushback. Why was that?

He got tons of pushback from the left. He was just able to weather his party’s fringe in ways Republicans have not.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#215

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

mrexcess wrote: post #205

Keyframe wrote: post #11

The older one gets, the more one agrees with rms.

Has he been markedly wrong about any of these positions that he's staked out over the years, from closed hardware to mobile security?

No, and you can tell how much this vexes particular individuals and institutions because the only kind of attack they can bring against him is character assassination, the tool of last resort.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#216

Post by ValveFan6969 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

elric wrote: post #102

petterroea wrote: post #6

Private surveillance is so much more scary than regular government surveillance because they have every incentive to invent new ways of surveilling you that they then try to sell to governments, or private actors who want to influence the world. It's like classic government surveillance but every company you interacted with and every app you use may at some point turn on you and use your data against you, just becaus…

> We are really seeing the fears of data collection from the 2000s and 2010s come to fruition as privatized surveillance now. Cambridge analytica should have been the warning shot but it wasn't enough. I remember protesting against data retention laws in the early 2000s. People thought we were nuts for using historical examples about the Nazis abusing all kinds of records to hunt down Jews. History was never going to…

[flagged]

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#217

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

exo762 wrote: post #175

ardme wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have read the Obama era numbers are inflated because they counted turn aways at the border. It’s also a little interesting that Obama was able to be against illegal immigration without a ton of pushback. Why was that?

For the same reason Nixon was able to establish OSHA without a ton of pushback.

[deleted]

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#218

Post by lawn » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #200

lawn wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please stop using the word alien to refer to humans. It's dehumanizing and it leads to a path where you can justify humiliating, torturing, and murdering other humans. Which is already happening with ICE.

> Please stop using the word alien to refer to humans It’s the legally-correct term. For what it’s worth, I’m a naturalized American. When I was doing my citizenship paperwork, I found the term fun. The word doesn’t dehumanize. Murdering people does.

Genocide starts with separating people into them and us, and this process starts with words.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#219

Post by hypeatei » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:11 PM UTC

gedy wrote: post #185

ardme wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have read the Obama era numbers are inflated because they counted turn aways at the border. It’s also a little interesting that Obama was able to be against illegal immigration without a ton of pushback. Why was that?

Team sports basically. And when you point out double standards, you got slammed as some "both sides" guy from the other team pretending to be a centrist.

This is a delusional take. For starters, there was criticism from lefties against Obama. Second, Obama didn't use ICE as a secret police force and send them into his political opponents' cities to punish them for wrongthink. You cannot tell me with a straightface that ICE in their current capacity is "just enforcing immigration laws"

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#220

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 2:12 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #207

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't think the two topics are separable. This is a specific case of the general trend They are and should be separable. DHS hoovering up government data is orthogonal to private data collection. They could become related. But they aren’t, and muddling a hypothetical problem with a clear, present and actual one is a good way to normalize the latter.

The should be separable, but they are not . Data collected privately absorbed by the government is a serious problem, even anonymized data can be de-anonymized if you can put more than one database next to each other. This allows for far more insights than any single database could give you and this is a real danger. Keep in mind that DOGE made off with a huge stash of data, which combined with other data, such as vo…

> Data collected privately absorbed by the government is a serious problem

The data we’re talking about here are home addresses. HHS (or the IRS) having home addresses isn’t what most Americans would or should consider problematic.