A new report from the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) warns that government data consolidation can create significant privacy, civil liberties, and cybersecurity risks, whether agencies place information in a single database or use a federated model.
In its July 2026 report, “What Is a Database? A Technical Guide to the Personal and Institutional Considerations of Government Data Consolidation,” CDT said limited and targeted interagency data sharing can reduce administrative burdens, improve service coordination, and help prevent fraud, waste, and abuse.
However, the report said recent efforts by the Trump administration have gone beyond targeted data sharing by seeking to consolidate information held by federal, state, and local agencies. CDT said the push has intensified public debate over privacy and data security and led to more than 20 lawsuits against federal agencies alleging violations of long-standing privacy laws.
That debate has partly focused on whether the government is creating a “master database.” Although the federal government has disputed that characterization, CDT said the type of consolidation model used in the effort does not eliminate the underlying privacy, civil liberties, and cybersecurity risks.
To illustrate that point, the report examines two primary models for consolidating government data: warehousing and federation.
Under a warehouse model, agencies consolidate information in a centralized database. Under a federated model, agencies retain their own databases while permitting access across systems.
CDT said the two models differ in how data is stored, controlled, updated, and removed from a sharing arrangement. However, the report said a federated system can provide much of the same functionality as a centralized database. As a result, both approaches can raise similar privacy, civil liberties, and cybersecurity concerns tied to broader government access to personal information.
Those risks increase, CDT said, when information is used for purposes further removed from the reason it was originally collected. Data provided to obtain a government service or benefit, for example, may later be repurposed for immigration enforcement, surveillance, or intimidation. CDT also said consolidated data could increase the government’s capacity to monitor individuals, suppress dissent, and chill speech and protest.
Expanded access also creates cybersecurity concerns. CDT said each additional way to access information can increase the chance that it will be exposed through human error or a security vulnerability. A large, centralized store may also attract more hacking attempts because it could give an attacker access to a greater amount of information at once.
Under a warehouse model, a breach at one participating agency could allow an attacker to use that agency’s access to reach information contributed by other agencies. A federated model avoids placing all information in one store, but the agency that originally collected the data may still lose some control over how another agency protects information it receives.
CDT called for consolidation initiatives to be rigorously assessed to ensure appropriate protections, alignment with agency missions, and processes that prevent information from being repurposed in ways that harm the people agencies serve.