Democrats press Palantir about reported creation of IRS ‘mega-database’

A group of Democrats are demanding that Palantir provide Congress with additional information about its contracts with the federal government following reports that the tech company is working with the IRS to create a searchable database of U.S. taxpayers’ records.

In a June 17-dated letter to Palantir CEO Alex Karp, the lawmakers asserted that the company “is enabling and profiting from serious violations of Federal law by the Trump Administration.”

The missive — led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — comes after an article published by The New York Times last month said the company’s work with the administration “began as a way to create a single, searchable database for the IRS, but has since expanded” into developing a centralized platform of information on Americans that would be sharable across federal agencies. 

“The unprecedented possibility of a searchable, ‘mega-database’ of tax returns and other data that will potentially be shared with or accessed by other federal agencies is a surveillance nightmare that raises a host of legal concerns, not least that it will make it significantly easier for Donald Trump’s Administration to spy on and target his growing list of enemies and other Americans,” the lawmakers wrote.

In addition to Wyden and Ocasio-Cortez, the letter was signed by eight other Democrats in the House and Senate. Wyden is also the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

The Democrats claimed that Palantir’s contract with the IRS “blatantly violates the notice, transparency, and procedural requirements of the Privacy Act,” which requires the government to provide public notice about routine uses of Americans’ data, as well as disclose agencies’ policies and procedures around the storage and disposal of collected information. 

Palantir’s expanded federal role was reportedly driven by President Donald Trump's March executive order to promote the inter-agency sharing of data. According to The New York Times, Palantir’s database work with the Trump administration was also influenced by the Department of Government Efficiency. Several DOGE members are veterans of Palantir, and several other former employees of the tech company have been installed in key government positions, including as the federal chief information officer.

Palantir has denied many of the claims published by The New York Times and repeated by the lawmakers, writing in a May 30 blog post that the company does not have the ability to “proactively share data across federal government sources” or “access, scrape, or otherwise compile data on American citizens for its own purposes.”

The tech company also published a June 17 response to the lawmakers’ letter that once again rebutted many of the claims in The New York Times article and said that “Palantir is not building a master database, and Palantir is neither conducting nor enabling mass surveillance of American citizens.”

In addition to outlining their concerns in the letter, however, the 10 Democrats also asked Palantir to, in part, provide information about the types of products it has sold to the government, whether the company has a “red line” for potential violations of human rights or laws, or if it has declined to undertake any contracts with the Trump administration “due to concerns related to privacy, civil liberties, or potential violations of federal, state, or international law.”

Notably, the lawmakers also asked the tech company to provide an answer about whether it has “sought or received assurances from the U.S. government that its executives, board members, and employees will not be held responsible for violations of federal law, including the internal revenue code.”