Even coarse, anonymized location metadata can be used to track individuals or reveal group behaviors. During the pandemic, contact tracing apps like Singapore’s TraceTogether used the BlueTrace protocol to log Bluetooth encounters between users. Though IDs were anonymized and rotated, logs were uploaded to a centralized database. This enabled health authorities—and, controversially, law enforcement—to reverse IDs and access personal data, raising serious concerns about the potential for abuse and the erosion of privacy in public health surveillance.

Sam Altman’s health-focused ventures, including Thrive AI Health and the massive Stargate AI project, aim to centralize personal health data to power AI-driven analytics and personalized care. While promising advances in disease detection and wellness, these initiatives raise significant privacy concerns. Aggregating sensitive data like sleep, stress, and movement patterns – even with opt-in controls – creates risks of misuse, surveillance, or breaches. Critics warn that such centralization could erode personal privacy under the guise of health innovation and optimization.

Metadata is a powerful resource, but only once it is aggregated in large amounts. Data brokers worldwide specialize in collecting vast amounts of people’s metadata to form marketing portfolios of individual people, including their browsing and shopping habits, preferences and tastes, and even political beliefs. This information, often processed by AI systems, is then sold to third parties like marketing and advertising firms for targeted messaging. But this information has also been used for more nefarious and manipulating goals.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is centralizing vast amounts of sensitive U.S. government data, including Social Security, tax, health, and immigration records. This raises significant privacy concerns, as it involves integrating previously siloed databases, potentially creating comprehensive profiles on individuals without adequate oversight. Such centralization could lead to misuse of personal information, targeting of vulnerable populations, and erosion of civil liberties. Legal challenges have been mounted to restrict DOGE’s access, citing violations of federal privacy laws and constitutional rights.