San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is representing four racial and immigrant justice groups Just Futures Law, MediaJustice, Mijente Support Committee, and the Immigrant Defense Project suing the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for withholding critical records about the collection and sharing of data during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The four groups all filed FOIA requests for information about COVID-related surveillance and data analysis last year. In particular, the groups are worried about HHS Protect, a vast secretive data platform designed by controversial data software company Palantir. Palantir has a long history of building surveillance systems for the Department of Homeland Security that facilitate criminal prosecutions, family separation, and raids that lead to detention and deportation. In July of last year, the government required all hospitals to report COVID-19 infection d