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Palantir is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens

bloomberg.com

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

#111

Post by gnode »

ekianjo wrote: post #27
jondiggsit wrote: post #11

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?

> I don’t care if the NSA is spying on US citizens because their job is national security Since when is the NSA supposed to spy on their own citizens by default? They should only target individuals that represent risk anyway. (if they were respecting the constitution)

> They should only target individuals that represent risk anyway. (if they were respecting the constitution)

If they were respecting the constitution, they should only target individuals for which they have a warrant (assuming we're talking about US citizens). Even then, it's my understanding that this is the job of the police, rather than the military.

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

#112

Post by opportune »

ideophobia wrote: post #82

I used to be intelligence analyst that utilized Palantir on a daily basis. Ask me anything.

To what extent are searches/queries/data-accesses performed by analysts logged and audited? Were there actual and official repercussions for looking at the data of family members and romantic interests?

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

#113

Post by spdionis »

GyYZTfWBfQw wrote: post #44
spdionis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing to hide from the law != nothing to hide from you.

Law? These are people who have access to your data, how am I, a stranger, any different from any other stranger who have access to your data? Would it be OK if I indirectly obtained your password and use it to access your data or something? Mind you, I was speaking in general about people who claim they don't care about their privacy, or about these companies collecting their personal data, or having a history of the…

> Mind you, I was speaking in general about people who claim they don't care about their privacy

We are talking in a thread about NSA having your data vs other companies having your data.

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

#115

Post by aje403 »

your-nanny wrote: post #101
aje403 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent point, now that you mention it, let's bring Trump and deep learning and 90's grunge into the discussion to form a maximal eigenbasis of discussion

Except most of those have no bearing on the conduct of Palantir, obviously, while the character of Thiel very much does.

That's not obvious. In fact, it's quite likely that my reading Trump's tweets and news along with my internet history from the early 2000's indicating an interest in Nirvana may have a weak correlative effect in a deep learning system that indicates I am slightly more susceptible to committing certain crimes or personality affects.

Ergo, can we all refocus this discussion of universal privacy rights violation on my partisan social group interests?

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

#116

Post by eptcyka »

jonnybgood wrote: post #26
eptcyka wrote: 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?

I guess I should've prefaced my comment that it's more of a response to the comments that existed here before I posted - most people just stated that they don't care and they were aware of the fact that such businesses have all this information.

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

#118

Post by atom-morgan »

your-nanny wrote: post #85
atom-morgan wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do question his commitment to freedom. But a misogynist?

I base my assertion on sentiments he has expressed, one if which was quoted in the Bloomberg article: >The 1920s was the last time one could feel “genuinely optimistic” about American democracy, he said; since then, “the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women—two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians—have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ in…

Yes, he's observing a trend and comparing its results to the ideal “capitalist democracy” that Thiel wish existed. Women, in general, aren't very libertarian especially on fiscal issues. He's not saying their rights should be taken away. I'll admit, it isn't the best worded statement in the world.

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

#119

Post by PurpleBoxDragon »

opportune wrote: post #42

I'm much less concerned with Palantir being used internally by corporations to detect information leaks (although in practice this also means it will be used to quash whistleblowers), since that's at least a viable use for their technology. And it's good that Palantir is pivoting towards less invasive applications of their technology such as supply chain tracking. But the article touches on the biggest issue with Pal…

>But the article touches on the biggest issue with Palantir, which is that they seem to be completely fine with allowing law enforcement agencies to use their software for parallel construction

I think that any company that works for the government to any degree is considered part of the government and is bound by all rules a government agency/employee would be.

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

#120

Post by 2close4comfort »

ideophobia wrote: post #107
2close4comfort wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you quit?

I was frustrated with management in my department and ended up leaving for private sector.

I have heard it was pretty rough. I extricated myself after the technical interview after reading up on process and conditions seemed like interesting work but not remotely altruistic in its goals. I hope you found something much better.
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