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The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#41

Post by GhostVII »

kd3 wrote: post #26

It's not just ICE but the entire government that is a problem. I personally stopped accepting any work from any government a few years ago. Once you realize what government is, there's no going back. "The State […] is an anti-social institution, administered in the only way an anti-social institution can be administered, and by the kind of person who, in the nature of things, is best adapted to such service [a psycho…

What is the alternative to having a government? If the current government was completely defunded, it wouldn't prevent governance entirely - we would just be governed by some private company or organization instead. How long are you expecting a country to survive without a government before some group of armed individuals take control of it again, this time without any form of democracy?

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#42

Post by 1111236112347 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #12
mulmen wrote: post #2

Maybe I misunderstand Palantir's mission but working with LEOs like ICE seems to be their core business. All credit to these employees for standing up for what they believe in but what exactly did they think they were signing up for? I have a new coworker who wears his Palantir t-shirt and it makes me uncomfortable to even see the name in my office.

I interviewed with Palantir maybe seven years ago (didn't get the job) and definitely wasn't aware at the time that they were doing this kind of work, if they even were back then. And had I known they were doing CBP stuff, I may have been OK with it under Obama even. It wasn't until Trump got elected and immigration policy became explicitly racist and enforcement child-separationy and concentration-campy that I reall…

The article is about work with HSI, not CBP. The scope of work that HSI does is much broader, here's a quote from wikipedia about it:

HSI special agents investigate violations of more than 400 U.S. laws that threaten the national security of the United States such as counter-proliferation and export violations, human rights violations/war crimes, human smuggling, art theft, human trafficking, drug smuggling and trafficking, arms trafficking, document and benefit fraud, the manufacturing and sale of counterfeit immigration and identity documents, transnational gangs, financial crimes including money laundering and bulk cash smuggling, trade-based money laundering (including trade finance and Kimberley Process investigations), computer crime, including child exploitation, intellectual property rights/trade fraud, import/export enforcement, trafficking of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and other merchandise, mass-marketing fraud, and international Cultural Property and Antiquities crimes.

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#43

Post by m0zg »

_bxg1 wrote: post #20
qazpot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am assuming ICE is "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement". I am not from USA but why every comment here is implying ICE to be some evil thing.

Because they do stuff like this https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/border-patrol-agent-deta...

Fresh off the Resolute desk: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/trump-...

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#44

Post by riku_iki »

burger_moon wrote: post #32

It's kinda interesting how people are just now realizing that all the big tech companies are government contractors and not this imaginary utopia of 'making the world a better place' they were sold on. Google, Amazon, Microsoft are all US gov't contractors. It's hilariously ironic seeing the political views of the employees suddenly clashing with their employers views of making money as if it's a new thing.

Google and Amazon get very marginal portion of their revenue from government, and reputation risks for main revenue sources likely discourage them in participation in shady activities with government.

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#45

Post by prepend »

_bxg1 wrote: post #25
prepend wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Palantir is a software company right and sells tools to ICE? Does someone wearing an Excel shirt make you uncomfortable because ICE uses MSOffice? What about OSS projects like R and Python that also enable ICE to analyze data to find people. Is the expectation that Palantir should not sell software to ICE?

The expectation is that companies like Palantir should not exist at all. Their core business is surveilling innocent people en masse.

That is not their core business. Their core business is data analysis. If I remember from some tech book, they were spun out from the fraud department in PayPal detecting fraudulent transactions and then selling services to FBI.

I became familiar with them through their disease prevention activities trying to evaluate bug transmissions and food borne diseases.

Certainly, you can analyze innocent people, but it’s not like they are a face recognition camera company or something.

I’m not employed by Palantir and not a fan or anything, but am surprised at how mischaracterized they seem to be.

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#46

Post by tempsy »

mulmen wrote: post #2

Maybe I misunderstand Palantir's mission but working with LEOs like ICE seems to be their core business. All credit to these employees for standing up for what they believe in but what exactly did they think they were signing up for? I have a new coworker who wears his Palantir t-shirt and it makes me uncomfortable to even see the name in my office.

I also don't understand this. Seems like if you were willing to work for Palantir before this made news you'd have understood that surveillance tech to police depts, corporations, etc. is exactly what the company sells/enables.

I did have a recruiter reach out a long time ago and remember they did actually pitch the social good use case of helping law enforcement find and arrest criminals involved in child prostitution rings.

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#47

Post by cybersnowflake »

sp332 wrote: post #17
mulmen wrote: post #2

Maybe I misunderstand Palantir's mission but working with LEOs like ICE seems to be their core business. All credit to these employees for standing up for what they believe in but what exactly did they think they were signing up for? I have a new coworker who wears his Palantir t-shirt and it makes me uncomfortable to even see the name in my office.

The ICE thing has gotten dramatically worse recently. Accepting a certain level of abuse of power in other LE agencies doesn't necessarily mean they're OK with, say, actively pushing back against a DoJ settlement so they can hold children in detention indefinitely, etc.

[flagged]

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#48

Post by 1111236112347 »

caymanjim wrote: post #39

Palantir's entire business is providing data mining and surveillance software to government agencies. ICE is probably the least-morally-reprehensible thing they support. They are deeply involved with DHS, CIA, NSA, all manner of classified agencies. If any of their employees have a problem with ICE, they never belonged there in the first place.

> Palantir's entire business is providing data mining and surveillance software to government agencies.

Palantir has a number of commercial customers, here's a few examples: https://www.palantir.com/palantir-foundry/impact/

Re: The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm ties to ICE under attack by employees

#50

Post by openasocket »

m0zg wrote: post #43
_bxg1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they do stuff like this https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/border-patrol-agent-deta...

Fresh off the Resolute desk: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/trump-...

They could also let asylum seekers go, and allow them to live in the United States pending a hearing. That's what we've been doing until this administration. These aren't random people off the street, these are people with valid claims of asylum who have passed the credible fear interview administered by CBP. Almost all of them will stay in contact with the courts and go to all their appointments.

The editorial also neglects to mention that our facilities are greatly over capacity, that this change will make that much much worse, and that thanks to the backlog of immigration cases these families would have to be in these facilities for 5 years or more. To say nothing of the abuses and poor conditions.

And, once again, these families seeking asylum have not committed any crime, they have done nothing illegal.

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