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Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

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Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#121

Post by justforyou »

_iyig wrote: post #7
chance_state wrote: post #2

What motivates extremely talented tech workers to devote their limited working years to making the world a worse place to live in?

What leads well-off Americans, whose safety and comfort is guaranteed by the constant efforts of law enforcement, to conclude that legal efforts to make law enforcement more efficient would make the world a worse place?

Given the persistant patterns of unprofessional amd unethical behavior amongst law enforcement, it's understandable that people are against giving them access to more powerful tools that have great potential for abuse.

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#122

Post by [deleted] »

4ntonius8lock wrote: post #89
TrueDuality wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I almost guarantee that these engineers have a very different value set than you. They could possibly see this as granting law enforcement legitimate and authorized access to collect evidence needed to prosecute real criminals. In their minds abuses of the technology they make is likely the illegal part not the existence of their tool itself. Most of the responses I'm seeing here are about money and while that is pro…

I will add to this. If you look at us biologically speaking, we are herding creatures. That means the majority will go along with what the leaders want. While the Milgram experiment was skewed, the reality is most people will shock you to death just because an authority told them so. And if you ask them at the end if what they did was right, they will say yes, or they wouldn't have done it. Being a decent of German J…

[deleted]

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#123

Post by ataturk »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #59

I'm mixed on this. I hired a former CIA analyst a few years ago. Part of his job at the CIA was to contribute to the daily briefings provided to president Obama. I asked him how he felt about the ethics of spying on American citizens. He said I wouldn't believe the number of threats that were prevented on a daily basis because of the tools and data they have access to. He said they don't share the information about w…

I still don't care. I want my freedom back.

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#124

Post by ataturk »

chance_state wrote: post #2

What motivates extremely talented tech workers to devote their limited working years to making the world a worse place to live in?

Statism, the replacement of religion by the state. Also, some people have a character flaw in that they want to control other people and they genuinely believe they know what is in everyone else's best interest. Armed with that mindset, any number of atrocious acts are possible.

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#125

Post by justforyou »

_iyig wrote: post #39
strooper wrote: post #22

> "Palantir software is instrumental to the operations of ICE, which is planning one of the largest-ever targeted immigration enforcement raids this weekend on thousands of undocumented families. Activists argue raids of this scale would be impossible without software like Palantir." Once and for all, it is the policy makers, not the tech industry, who are responsible for these operations. Tech enables people doing t…

I'm an American citizen who is happy to see the law enforced. I don't live in Atherton or Palo Alto. There were two Central American gang-related shootings near my family's home last week; there were two MS-13 murders in the broader area earlier this year. I grew up here, and it didn't used to be like this. I want to see those who come here illegally, or who have been denied refugee status as the result of due proces…

4 incidents in an unspecified broad region within a years time isn't really significant unless you're talking about an extremely underpopulated region.

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#126

Post by CompanionCuuube »

homonculus1 wrote: post #87
count wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that internally lots of stats/etc are posted around things like cyber attacks, where a 'port scan' is counted as 65k different attacks (all of the tcp ports getting a 'malicious' SYN == an attack). It's the functional equivalent of calling satellite overflights attacks, every time they fly by. 'We are under constant attack!' also helps the internal justification of working for/with agencies like that.

It doesn't seem to pass the smell test, does it? Presumably these attacks would be thwarted by raiding and arresting the conspirators... the feds might be able to snuff out a story that so-and-so was plotting to assassinate the president, but I don't think they'd be able to hide it if they were kicking in that many doors on a daily basis. That would get out eventually if only through rumor and word of mouth. Maybe th…

"According to an old story, a lord of ancient China once asked his physician, a member of a family of healers, which of them was the most skilled in the art.

The physician, whose reputation was such that his name became synonymous with medical science in China, replied, "My eldest brother sees the the spirit of sickness and removes it before it takes shape, so his name does not get out of the house.

My elder brother cures illness when it is still extremely minute, so his name does not get out of the neighborhood.

As for me, I puncture veins, prescribe potions, and massage skin, so from time to time my name gets out and is heard among the lords."

Sun Tzu - Art of War translator's intro

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#127

Post by mdorazio »

zymhan wrote: post #109
sswezey wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethics. The amount and scope of information collected by things like Palantir Gotham is beyond invasive. The fact that a police officer can type in your name and know where you were driving is disconcerting. It is about as Big Brother as you can get and not the kind of world I would like to live in. This question is a slippery slope, where people become more and more accustomed to less privacy. If you think this is j…

This exact issue was pointed out many times with automated license plate scanning came into existence. Is it really Palantir's fault for making software to aggregate the data? In my view it is our fault as citizens for allowing the government to collect such data in the first place. Any other company with enough developers and data scientists can do what Palantir does. It's the massive amount of information their sof…

That’s like asking if it’s really a murderer’s fault for pulling the trigger of a gun manufactured by someone else. Yes, it absolutely is their fault and no, “if they didn’t, someone else would” is not a valid moral excuse, ever.

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#128

Post by evan_ »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #59

I'm mixed on this. I hired a former CIA analyst a few years ago. Part of his job at the CIA was to contribute to the daily briefings provided to president Obama. I asked him how he felt about the ethics of spying on American citizens. He said I wouldn't believe the number of threats that were prevented on a daily basis because of the tools and data they have access to. He said they don't share the information about w…

> He said they don't share the information about what or how many crimes they prevent because it would cause panic.

You always hear people say this, but they don't seem to worry about the panic that line might cause.

Re: Palantir’s User Manual for Cops

#130

Post by subjectsigma »

chance_state wrote: post #2

What motivates extremely talented tech workers to devote their limited working years to making the world a worse place to live in?

I'm sure if you had a shred of empathy in your whole body, you could think for about five seconds and realize that maybe not everyone else had the same system of values as you.
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