What specific contracts has Palantir signed with federal agencies that involve access to voter or Social Security data?
Executive summary
Reporting establishes that Palantir holds multiple federal contracts with agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DoD), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Health and Human Services (HHS), and that it has been in discussions with the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about using its Foundry/Gotham platforms — but the publicly available record in the cited reporting does not show a plainly documented, signed federal contract that explicitly grants Palantir access to voter rolls or Social Security beneficiary data [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Palantir’s documented federal contracts — scope and agencies
Palantir’s booked work with the federal government has expanded rapidly under the administration described in the reporting: the company received more than $113 million in federal spending since the president took office, including new or expanded work for DHS and the Pentagon and a large DoD award in the hundreds of millions (reported as $795M or similar figures), and it has longstanding contracts with agencies such as ICE and HHS [1] [5] [2] [6].
2. What the sources say about Social Security data — talks and email exchanges, not a clear contract
Multiple outlets reported Palantir was “in discussions” with the Social Security Administration and the IRS about deploying its software to organize agency data, and The New York Times showed screenshots of DHS emails about merging some Social Security information with immigration records — but those accounts describe conversations and potential integrations rather than a cited, signed contract explicitly authorizing Palantir to handle SSA beneficiary files [1] [3] [4].
3. Voter data: reporting on mixes with state records but no federally documented Palantir contract for voter rolls
The more alarming narrative — that Palantir is being handed direct, systemic access to voter registration databases — is not substantiated in the cited reporting as a concrete, signed federal contract; instead, reporting from WIRED and others described agency employees and projects that could combine DHS or immigration data with voter or state records in practice, while mainstream pieces emphasize talks and potential centralization rather than a specific, documented federal procurement for voter files [4] [2] [1].
4. ICE and DHS contracts — demonstrable integrations that raise questions about linked datasets
ICE alone has spent large sums on Palantir tools for investigative case management and integrations that bring together travel, visa, biometric and social-media-adjacent data, and recent contracts for ICE have explicitly mentioned leveraging “external” sources in addition to DHS data — provisions that privacy advocates say create pathways to link disparate datasets, even if a single federal contract for Social Security or voter files isn’t spelled out in the public record cited here [7] [5] [2].
5. Palantir’s response and the legal context
Palantir has repeatedly characterized itself as a technology vendor and “data processor,” arguing it does not determine how customers use data and noting it cannot speak to conversations it was not party to; the company also acknowledged contract expansions across lines of work without conceding it had been given direct access to SSA or voter rolls as described in some reporting [8] [1]. Lawmakers have pressed for clarification because of legal limits on interagency sharing of taxpayer and Social Security information, and congressional letters cite concerns that a cross-agency database could violate statutes protecting those records [3] [9].
6. Bottom line and limits of the public record
Based on the sources provided, there are clear, documented federal contracts between Palantir and agencies such as DHS, ICE, DoD and HHS and widely reported discussions with SSA and IRS about using Palantir’s platforms to organize agency data, but none of the cited articles produces a single, explicit contract document showing Palantir was given express, standalone contractual authority to access or host national voter rolls or raw Social Security beneficiary databases; the record instead shows combinations of contracts, email exchanges, and vendor-agency talks that create plausible technical pathways for such access and that have prompted congressional oversight requests [1] [4] [3] [8].