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Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

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Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why does the media seem to be publishing so many "well duh" tier articles about various companies at the moment? Did you miss the whole Facebook and election thing?

no I didn't, that's partly what I'm referencing. What specifically are you pointing to?

That's why they publish these kinds of stories. It's related to current events.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#32
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be a nice way to live, having full faith that your government will always do the right thing. Relaxing.

It's more a matter of focusing the discussion. Once you bring government into it, it makes the conversation a lot more complicated. This is not a complicated issue.

But it is the Government that complicates the thing: USSR, China, Fascist regimes: they persecute OPINIONS not deeds.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#33
post #19

Why isn't there a privacy watchdog that constantly monitors these kind of companies? I also expect this watchdog to test for data leakage from one site/company to another (e.g. by taking on the role of customer). They should do this on a frequent basis. Without this, companies seem to be free to do whatever they want.

Hahahaha

This is how the fucking government gets around the Bill of Rights, primarily the 4th. When it's outsourced, you have no rights. Parallel construction needs to be the next addition to the 4th or it's own amendment.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#34
My biggest issue with former military people is that their skills don't easily translate into any other fields and that their mindset is usually heavily canted towards statism, which is a big problem when you combine the kinds of surveillance technology we have with needing to turn a profit. It makes anything East Germany did look like they were underachievers.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#35

> Aided by as many as 120 “forward-deployed engineers” This term popping up again made me curious. To my surprise, that's not just some overloaded nickname (what's cooler than styling yourself with a military or martial arts term, right?), that's what they are actually called: https://www.palantir.com/careers/teams/forward-deployed-soft...

they fear the words "consultant" or "contractor" I think

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#36
post #21

I’ve always thought - I don’t care if the NSA is spying on US citizens because their job is national security. The problem is when those tools trickle down. All of a sudden you have a local cop with too much time on their hands spying on you. But if you’re not doing anything wrong, you shouldn’t have anything to hide, right? Isn’t that how the saying goes?

Must be a nice way to live, having full faith that your government will always do the right thing. Relaxing.

We literally have thousands of years of proof that governments always abuse their power when they think someone is their "enemy". So it's strange that people default to "trusting their government." I blame this on America's blue-team/red-team political thinking, which forces one to stick to a party no matter what.

The standard for "enemy" could also be as low as they choose it to be, which is also weird that people think the government wouldn't go after them because they are "innocent", as if these people get to decide who is innocent and who isn't.

No, it's the government that does that. Courts may have the final say in the end (unless you're indefinitely detained for multiple years first), but until then the government can do a lot of damage to your life if it comes after you. Even putting you through years of lawsuits, stress and money spent on lawyers would be bad enough. You may win in the end, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory.

And that's if you don't take their plea deal first when they scare you with multiple bogus charges that you think shouldn't even apply to you but you're too scared of the 50 years in prison sentence they're threatening you with.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#37
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

media will do this about every subject, think of it as the original analytics, if the story drew a lot of attention then another story similar to the first story will also draw attention because people will associate it with the original really interesting story that drew all the attention. Sooner or later the quality and interest of the stories on subject X will decline and people will not react so much to them so t…

Here’s the problem with the journalism industry: They love to write about scandals and problems. But if you have an actual solution to the problem, they aren’t going to publish it. You can also see articles on court cases about some scandalous things, but can hardly find out how the case eventually turned out. And so on. Journalism highlights problems not solutions because that’s what gets the most “outrage reshares”…

I think the problem is market economy. Media organizations are businesses which are organisms that focus on the bottom line. I.e. making as much money as possible. Usually the only way to fix these market failures ( I consider this dissonance between monetray value and actual long term value to be a market failure) is with formal regulations or non formal moral regulation. The former is tricky and the latter is requires cohesive cultural values and structures. Sadly (imo) the most effective coltural structures are religious.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why does the media seem to be publishing so many "well duh" tier articles about various companies at the moment? Did you miss the whole Facebook and election thing?

no I didn't, that's partly what I'm referencing. What specifically are you pointing to?

Most non-technical people (and even many technical people) don't know this. I am myself surprised that the Facebook thing caused such an out cry now, but that's what happens when you bring these things to people's attention.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#39

> Aided by as many as 120 “forward-deployed engineers” This term popping up again made me curious. To my surprise, that's not just some overloaded nickname (what's cooler than styling yourself with a military or martial arts term, right?), that's what they are actually called: https://www.palantir.com/careers/teams/forward-deployed-soft...

Because they wish to appeal to the spirit of adventure these people have. They're washed up mercenaries of the state who desperately want to feel relevant one more time. I wish people would stop helping the war machine. Stay the hell home for once.

Re: Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

#40
post #7

Whilst the article may not have any surprising information for the regular hacker news reader, it may come as a surprise that a non-insurance, non-government business holds more private data about an individual than Facebook does, especially since most individuals will not recall ever interacting with said company. I think it is beneficial if more people become aware of this.

> it may come as a surprise that a non-insurance, non-government business holds more private data about an individual than Facebook does Where in the article is that stated?

In the title?
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