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Palantir Knows Everything About You (bloomberg.com)
Palantir, a data-mining company created by Peter Thiel, is aiding government agencies by tracking American citizens using the War on Terror, Bloomberg reports. From the report: The company's engineers and products don't do any spying themselves; they're more like a spy's brain, collecting and analyzing information that's fed in from the hands, eyes, nose, and ears. The software combs through disparate data sources -- financial documents, airline reservations, cellphone records, social media postings -- and searches for connections that human analysts might miss. It then presents the linkages in colorful, easy-to-interpret graphics that look like spider webs.
[...] The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services uses Palantir to detect Medicare fraud. The FBI uses it in criminal probes. The Department of Homeland Security deploys it to screen air travelers and keep tabs on immigrants. Police and sheriff's departments in New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and Los Angeles have also used it, frequently ensnaring in the digital dragnet people who aren't suspected of committing any crime.
[...] The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services uses Palantir to detect Medicare fraud. The FBI uses it in criminal probes. The Department of Homeland Security deploys it to screen air travelers and keep tabs on immigrants. Police and sheriff's departments in New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and Los Angeles have also used it, frequently ensnaring in the digital dragnet people who aren't suspected of committing any crime.
This is not news. The us government is tracking anything and everything. They might have a hard time noise vs signal, but they are collecting, watching, listening, refining methods and tools. If you think otherwise, I at least hope the ignorance is bliss.
If a company has no relation to you, business, personal, or otherwise, then by law you should be able to order them to remove all data from there system that pertains to you.
Even better they shouldn't be allowed to keep it in the first place.
Even then all data after 7 years should have a sunset clause and be required to be removed.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
But does it know the length of the US Coastline?
If Palantir has wrong information on someone won't that make this person a victim of the state? How are decisions made on data collected by various shady deals, when we don't know if the data is correct?
The next totalitarian government will use it to dispose of dissidents before they can group into any sizeable opposition.
I guess you'd be labeled a terrorist threat if you started posting incorrect information.
Things like instead of removing photo EXIF information, geotagging it with places like Greenland or Antarctica.
Posting fake updates on facebook/linkedin with new jobs, or actually accepting friend requests from the bots. Posting on instagram rumors and liking some of the crazier people.
I tried Palantir once - but all I saw were a pair of old hands, withering in flame.
#DeleteChrome
For a man who claims to be a Libertarian, Peter Thiel is awfully willing to help authoritarians ruin people's lives and abuse their power. Even if you 100% believe in the US justice system (I don't), this software is probably for sale to China, Burma, Saudi, and a whole bunch of other repressive regimes.
Palantir is proof that any one who was "shocked" by what Snowden etc "revealed" are idiots and/or uninformed. Planitir was around for years before the leakers and they were very very public about telling the world that this kind of data mining was ubiquitous. We never needed the drama queens to spill the beans, any of the concept we're public for a long time. All they did was reveal some details which compromised some poor field agents and got them killed.
Peter Thiel is a piece of shit. Stick that in your database Palantir and fuck yourself with it.
Agreed, HP, IBM, Oracle has had identity management suites that do this for a while now. Analyst's Notebook was picked up by IBM and does nearly the same thing. The Army's bigger System DCGS also does this but on a greater scale aka TIA (Total Information Awareness) Was based on Analyst's Notebook and Lockheed's Information Sharing Environment solution. If you look at LE (Law Enforcement) use cases, they're totally dominated by Microsoft's Power BI (Business Intelligence) or Data Integration platforms similar to SoftwareAG. The only reason you don't hear anything about these guys is because they create a platform so large and pervasive that Journalists can't wrap their heads around how big data works.
Palantir is today's buzz word, and they're getting tons of free advertising from these muckrack[tm] journalists. It makes you wonder if the Journalists are being paid by sponsors to hype up these companies to make them into not just a big name in Data Analysis, but a household name. Next thing you know, Slack, Mattersmost, Discord, and Twitch are going to be dragged through the muck.
* https://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2016/03/04/how-predictive-analytics-can-help-law-enforcement-fight-crime/
* http://www1.softwareag.com/corporate/images/SAG_Terracotta_US_Law_Enforcement_RS_Mar16_WEB_tcm16-107904.pdf
* https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2017/03/16/lockheed-cyber-crime-contract.aspx
* http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/crimefighting/
Either these journalists are under someone's dime, or they're really really misinformed.
Look at Discord, they just made $50 mill today:
* https://discordapp.com/privacy
** Developers: Developers using our SDK or API will have access to their end users’ information, including message content, message metadata, and voice metadata. Developers must use such information only to provide the SDK/API functionality within their applications and/or services.
Comcast knows everything about you.
Verizon knows everything about you.
Comcast knows everything about you.
IRS knows everything about you.
Google knows everything about you.
Facebook knows everything about you.
Uber knows everything about you.
Grocery stores know everything about you.
Credit agencies know everything about you.
I can go all day.
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
and the shaft for the poor.
Go read up on liberland and discuss.seasteading.org for examples. Or y'know any Conservative website 'Libertarians in name only' frequent.
Agreed, it's not news. But an article that manages to mention Thiel, War on Terror, collecting personal information, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and illegal immagrants is clickbait gold.
the man has to eat...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Libertarians like Peter Thiel keeps proving my adage right: libertarians are just monarchs waiting to happen.
Libertarians only want freedom for themselves, and at the expense of other people if they can help it.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
Palantir isn't collecting data on you, the Government and corporations do that.
Palantir is a software company who makes an integrated, modular system for data integration and analysis (such as link analysis). They don't collect the data -- they sell the software to entities who have data feeds that need to be analyzed. (However, Palantir does provide consultants to work on-site with the customers to help use and customize the software.)
About a decade ago when Palantir was brand new, I recommended them to certain military customers I was working for; it was an excellent product! Some people hate the company (because it is fashionable to hate them in some circles). They got a lot of "hype", because they actually delivered useful software that solved problems. Imagine that! I have never had any connection to the company other than telling my clients that they should become customers (users). Worked out very well and the clients were ecstatic with the results. I have heard that not every one of their customers was as happy, for whatever reason. Your milage may vary, I guess.
It was largely written in Java, and was all about pluggable and customizable modules for data management: taking feeds, cleaning/loading, and lots of modules for various kinds of analysis. Haven't seen Palantir in years, but I would be surprised if by now they didn't have AI/ML goodies, and probably (wildly guessing here) good interfaces for Python, too.
The next totalitarian government will use it to dispose of dissidents before they can group into any sizeable opposition.
They already do - see PRNK, China, Russia, Iran ....