ernment panel tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
But as part of that effort, Trump made an announcement that alarmed privacy advocates.
His administration would be seeking “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems and IT [information technology] systems” from across the spectrum of government agencies.
That announcement was the start of a series of sweeping steps Trump took in 2025 to push for the mass consolidation of federal data.
But civil rights advocates and legal scholars fear that Trump has accelerated a worrisome trend, one that pits the individual right to privacy against government expediency.
“Once you build a system that connects every database about an individual across federal and state governments, it’s incredibly hard to unwind that system,” said Cody Venzke, who serves as senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Venzke advises on issues of surveillance and technology. He warns that once such a data cluster is fully created, it could be wielded by both Democrats and Republicans for political aims.
“It is there for future presidents of either party to use as police,” Venzke said. Already, he added, government data is being weaponised against activists and undocumented immigrants.
