Slashdot Mirror
How a Team of Geeks Cracked the Spy Trade
drunken_boxer777 sends us to The Wall Street Journal for a lengthy article on a small tech company, Palantir Technologies, that is making the CIA, Pentagon, and FBI take notice. The submitter adds, "And yes, their company name is a reference to what you think it is." "One of the latest entrants into the government spy-services marketplace, Palantir Technologies has designed what many intelligence analysts say is the most effective tool to date to investigate terrorist networks. The software's main advance is a user-friendly search tool that can scan multiple data sources at once, something previous search tools couldn't do. That means an analyst who is following a tip about a planned terror attack, for example, can more quickly and easily unearth connections among suspects, money transfers, phone calls and previous attacks around the globe. ... With Palantir's software 'you can actually point to examples where it was pretty clear that lives were saved.'"
With a name like Palentir, it sounds like trojan spy program, not a Google like search tool.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
And creates a great risk of corruption among those who use it.
I am officially gone from
What happens when you aim the same tool at ordinary people like Slashdotters? You will discover sexual orientation, adultery, etc.
In other words, the same tool saving us from the terrorists can also defeat the last barriers protecting our privacy. If an intelligence officer in the government hated a particular SlashDotter (due to her articles in this forum), that officer could easily identify her address, her friends, her bank accounts, her adulterous lover, etc. Can you say, "blackmail"?
The tech sounds quite interesting; but I'm not sure I love the idea of having intelligence agents operate on a "Yes, person A is linked to person B. You aren't allowed to know why; but the omniscient computer assures you that it is so." basis.
It's interesting in the context of this discussion that Tolkien's Palentir were more than just viewing devices. They could also be used to communicate with other stones, and I think for other purposes. Anyway, when one of the stones fell into evil hands, the Dark Lord was able to use his power over it to control anyone foolish enough to try and use one of the remaining stones.
There's a lesson here I think.
May the Maths Be with you!
Good guys used it too. To defeat Sauron AND to "keep the world safe".
In fact... Good guys made all 7 Palantir mentioned in LotR.
Sauron got his hands on one of those and used it to corrupt Saruman and Denethor.
So... No. It is not "the tool the evil guy used to control the world."
The message would be that "power corrupts". In this case - power in the form of knowledge or information.
What Palantir really lacked was a decent firewall. No protection whatsoever.
Very intuitive user interface though. And they were practically indestructible.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
... a badly written child's fantasy world ....
Now now, Tolkien's Middle-earth was a badly-written ADULT'S fantasy world.
It's all about need to know. If you knowing why is necessary to draw a conclusion, you'll eventually be granted this access.
Under the old system, you outright wouldn't even know that a connection exists, nevermind whether you need to know whether that connection is important or not.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
i'm guessing you thing Twilight and Harry Potter are works of genius?
i'm surprised more people haven't taken your flamebait.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Thanks, my bookshelf fell down, and I was unable to read it myself.
Does having a witty signature really indicate normality?