The Trump administration is considering a proposal that would allow large technology companies to collect data on users that would help determine whether they should be considered mentally fit to own a firearm, according to The Washington Post.
Essentially, the proposal would have the federal government collecting information from Google, Amazon and Apple related to users’ mental health.
It is part of a push to create a Health Advanced Research Projects Agency, which would be a part of the Health and Human Services Department, The Post reported. Modeled after the Pentagon’s innovative Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, HARPA would have its own budget, and the director would be a presidential appointee.
The idea of instituting HARPA is not necessarily new, as it was first floated in 2017. Recent mass shootings and the discussion around mental health and guns, however, have thrust it back into the realm of possibility.
The specific, technology-related proposal came from the Suzanne Wright Foundation. The organization — founded by Bob Wright, a friend of Donald Trump’s — approached the president with a desire to include a project called Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes, or SAFE HOME.
Under the plan, HARPA would develop “breakthrough technologies with high specificity and sensitivity for early diagnosis of neuropsychiatric violence. A multi-modality solution, along with real-time data analytics, is needed to achieve such an accurate diagnosis.”
Among the potential technologies that could be used to collect data are Google Home and Amazon Echo “smart speakers,” Apple Watches and Fitbit activity trackers.
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