Which US federal agencies have contracted Palantir for identity or surveillance projects?
Executive summary
Palantir is a major contractor for U.S. federal identity and surveillance-related systems: the clearest, repeatedly documented customers include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broadly, the Department of Defense (DoD), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — with other civilian agencies like the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported as users or in discussions with the company [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. Reporting also shows Palantir products (Foundry, Gotham) are used to fuse disparate records into investigative or operational tools that critics call surveillance infrastructure, while Palantir pushes back against characterizations that it is building a “master database” [6] [5] [7].
1. Agencies with repeatedly documented Palantir contracts and surveillance use
ICE is the most frequently cited federal customer for surveillance-oriented platforms: multiple reports document a $30 million contract for “ImmigrationOS” to identify, track and report on migrants and self-deportations and note longstanding operational tools Palantir built for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and enforcement activities [1] [2] [8] [9]. The Department of Homeland Security more broadly has used Palantir technology, and DHS components beyond ICE have been described as integrating Palantir systems for operational analytics [4] [10]. The Department of Defense has also been a historic and continuing customer of Palantir’s Gotham and related systems for intelligence and mission work [1] [3].
2. The IRS, SSA and the prospect of cross‑agency identity integration
Reporting highlights intensive engagement between Palantir and civilian financial and benefits agencies: the IRS has been reported as working with Palantir on a “mega-API” to unify agency data and is cited across multiple outlets as an agency that has contracted or explored Palantir tools for data integration [3] [10] [6]. The Social Security Administration and IRS were specifically named in accounts of agency briefings and discussions with Palantir, and Democratic lawmakers demanded more disclosure after reporting that Palantir technology was in use at DHS and HHS and discussed with SSA and IRS [11] [10] [4]. These reports underpin concerns that Palantir’s tooling could enable cross-referencing of identity data across tax, benefits and immigration systems [12] [4].
3. Health and civilian uses with surveillance implications
Beyond law enforcement and tax agencies, domestic health and public‑health agencies have engaged Palantir’s platforms: the CDC and HHS are cited as using Foundry or in contractual relationships for data-integration projects, which critics warn could be repurposed toward profiling or operational surveillance if linked with other sources [6] [5] [4]. Palantir’s Foundry is widely described as a tool that unifies datasets ranging from biometrics to tax records and that Gotham is tailored for law‑enforcement-style link analysis, giving these civilian contracts relevance to debates over identity and surveillance [1] [6].
4. What the company and some officials say versus critics’ framing
Palantir and its spokespeople have pushed back against claims that it is building a single, whole‑of‑government “master database,” insisting licenses and contracts do not equate to a centralized surveillance repository, while company executives defend safeguards and mission usefulness [7] [2]. Critics and privacy groups point to the ICE ImmigrationOS award and the company’s data-fusion work as evidence Palantir’s platforms materially enable surveillance and cross‑agency identification of individuals, and lawmakers have sought transparency and documents to assess legal risks [9] [13] [4].
5. Limits of the public record and how to read the claims
The public reporting documents multiple specific agency contracts and conversations — ICE (including HSI), DHS, DoD, IRS, HHS, CDC and reported talks with SSA — but these sources do not provide a definitive, exhaustive roster of every federal contract past or present; Palantir and some agency statements dispute particular framings such as a “mega-database” claim, and congressional inquiries remain ongoing [1] [7] [4]. This body of reporting is sufficient to conclude Palantir is deeply embedded in identity‑relevant and surveillance‑adjacent federal systems, while acknowledging that precise scopes, data flows and internal safeguards vary by contract and are not fully disclosed in the cited coverage [6] [10] [3].