Palantir Knows Everything About You (bloomberg.com) 111
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.
And? (Score:3)
Palantir - InfoSec Leader or New Kid on the Block? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re: And? (Score:1)
it's a private company. they sell info to government agencies that those agencies cannot collect themselves either for lack of resources or legal restrictions
Re: (Score:1)
people who buy the software actually need to input data into it.
if you're saying palantir sells data to the government, then basically any application that employs a database to store and distribute data is selling information to the government, including microsoft or any operating system or application for that matter.
I don't think you know how life works.
clickbait (Score:2)
Re: And? (Score:1)
Right to remove (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:1)
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.
does this also apply to newspapers or will you insist that they scrub all of their birth announcements from the past?
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone remember USENET and Kibo? You just had to mention his name on a USENET discussion board and he would appear. Turns out that the company he worked for was logging every post ever made. Eventually those archives were made public.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I am interested to see how you would enforce that.
Re: (Score:2)
I am interested to see how you would enforce that.
I'm open to suggestions.
Re: (Score:1)
Well, to make sure, you would have to run the entire facility through a shredder, along with every device that ever connected to them through their WAN port. For the staff, you'll need a flashy thingy. That should buy you some time until the next guy pops up.
Re: (Score:2)
They said, "should."
Everyone knows that whatever follows means, "in my ideal reality ..." Oh, and there are never any unforeseen consequences that arise from the "should" either.
Re: (Score:1)
Move to Europe. The laws have been on the books for some time, are regularly enforced and are about to get even stricter.
Re: (Score:2)
Fine the companies that refuse to do it? Audit the data companies have?
Re: (Score:1)
Totally inadequate. You can only verify what they let you see. But it would help if the individual had real subpoena power over their own data. We have to at least make the flow go both ways.
US Coastline (Score:5, Funny)
But does it know the length of the US Coastline?
Re: (Score:1)
Or the airspeed of an unladen swallow?
Re: (Score:1)
Or the airspeed of an unladen swallow?
What do you mean? An African or European swallow?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Yes.
Re: (Score:2)
Who cares about that geography stuff? Does it know many licks it takes to get to the chocolately Tootsie-Roll centre of a Tootsie-Pop?
Get your priorities straight, man.
What happens with erroneous data? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The key thing here is that if this thing's algorithms kept secret, then it could be cited falsely in witch hunts. As much as this stinks, we need an open source project to bankrupt this commercial interest.
Re: (Score:2)
It would be used to check out possible links. If Agent Black is known to make calls to Pizza Hut, they have to check out whether that is a false front for deliveries or whether it's just a pizza order.
You missed to mention another important use case: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
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 ....
Your privacy isn't. (Score:2)
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.
Ugh, no thanks (Score:2)
I tried Palantir once - but all I saw were a pair of old hands, withering in flame.
Re: (Score:2)
I tried Palantir once - but all I saw were a pair of old hands, withering in flame.
I'm pretty sure at one point I used something called Palantir which was an apache webcam app for linux which I used to monitor and switch between my home cameras remotely.
Re: (Score:2)
I tried Palantir once - but all I saw were a pair of old hands, withering in flame.
I'm pretty sure at one point I used something called Palantir which was an apache webcam app for linux which I used to monitor and switch between my home cameras remotely.
Ok here it is, last update was around 2012:
http://www.fastpath.it/product... [fastpath.it]
Re: (Score:2)
Fool of a Took.
For a man who claims to be a Libertarian... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:For a man who claims to be a Libertarian... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget rentseeking and welfare for the rich (Score:1)
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.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Thiel thinks that as a Libertarian, he should be free to sell his services to authoritarians and the government shouldn't be able to stop him. I'm not sure what a Libertarian stands for other than "I think I should be able to do whatever I want, and fuck you over to the largest degree you're unable to stop me." Except for with physical violence, because most Libertarians tend to be physically incapable of defending themselves.
Re: (Score:1)
Libertarian really means: "fuck you, I've got mine", with a side of "let's create an idea to reel in some suckers who will tirelessly work to maintain the plutocracy".
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Libertarian && Rich = I got mine so screw you. It's amazing how many people think a "fair" world is one where they're better off, it's like 90% think they're above average drivers.
Re:For a man who claims to be a Libertarian... (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
I think that libertarians are self centered, so his self interest is best served by selling us out. I think libertarians are the right wing version of communists - it sounds OK in certain narrow situations but doesn't scale.
Have some decency (Score:2)
the man has to eat...
Tolkien reference (Score:1)
No need for Snowden or Manning (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
any one who was "shocked" by what Snowden etc "revealed" are idiots and/or uninformed.
You're a dipshit.
Fuck it (Score:2)
and-- (Score:3)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Burma Shave
Re: (Score:3)
Very libertarian (Score:2)
Libertarians only want freedom for themselves, and at the expense of other people if they can help it.
I Don't Think So (Score:2)
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 t