What is a Database? A Technical Guide to the Personal and Institutional Considerations of Government Data Consolidation

What is a Database? A Technical Guide to the Personal and Institutional Considerations of Government Data Consolidation Limited and targeted data sharing between agencies has long been understood as a way to reduce administrative burdens (on both administrators and individuals interacting with government); improve service coordination; and assist in preventing fraud, waste, and abuse. However, the Trump Administration has made unprecedented moves to go beyond such targeted sharing and consolidate the various collections of data held by both federal, state, and local agencies despite decades of bipartisan consensus against the federal government amassing personal data on Americans. This large-scale data consolidation poses risks to personal privacy, government surveillance, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. These developments raise fundamental questions about how to know when the risks of data consolidation outweigh the benefits. Understanding how specific risks relate to technical design choices is important to making this assessment. Therefore, this explainer provides background on government data consolidation, and more details about the risks and benefits of consolidations as well as the conditions that can enable or discourage consolidation. Using these core concepts as its foundation, the explainer lays out the technical elements of consolidating data and how they can contribute to or ameliorate specific risks to Americans.