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

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

#131

Post by mcintyre1994 »

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’ve brought up my discomfort with Palantir to a recruiter a while ago and they said I’d be working with businesses trying to get set up with Palantir analytics systems. I asked if the role was distinct from one that might work with LEO and of course it’s not, so who knows how true that really is - I’m skeptical.

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

#132

Post by mandevil »

southphillyman wrote: post #70
mandevil wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm the weird one, but who would wear a t-shirt from your previous company to work at your current company? That just seems to send all the wrong signals.

It's also a way to flex. Same way people tend to wear alumni sweaters from Ivy League, Stanford level schools. I doubt you'd see anyone wearing an Infosys (or similarly viewed company) shirt in that kind of environment.

Right, but no matter what your past is, you are still at $currentCompany, not $prevCompany, so in that most important of ways you are exactly the same as all these other people you are trying to flex on. Why would I care that you used to get paychecks from a more prestigious company if yours are signed by the same guy as me now?

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

#133

Post by CydeWeys »

tastygreenapple wrote: post #125
anthony_doan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not from USA but why every comment here is implying ICE to be some evil thing. Because there are reports of ICE doing inhumane things toward the people they have detained. 1) Children are being separated from families. 2) Children are dying under ICE facilities. 3) The jailing of asylum seekers. These are the few things that lead many people to believe ICE is evil. Where as the other side seems to be concentra…

but none of these features are new, child seperation and children dying in ICE facilities happened under the Obama administration and it wasn't a big deal then. What changed?

Source? Every news article I've seen shows that the problem is far worse under Trump.

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

#134

Post by creaghpatr »

vkou wrote: post #102
creaghpatr wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, if Mexican heroin killed multiple people you know, you have a not-sunny view of illegal immigrants and unsecured borders. Just because you attribute your own ignorance to the color of your skin, doesn't mean others do.

It's not illegal to seek asylum.

Likewise, it's not illegal to enforce the law, as created by Congress.

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

#135

Post by CydeWeys »

alistairSH wrote: post #118
AndrewBissell wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this explains the "Defend the Shire" shirts I see Palantir employees wear sometimes. Always thought the idea they're on the side of the pastoral, mind-their-own-business Hobbits was one of the most absurd misconceptions of their purpose of any company in Silicon Valley, and that's really saying something.

Oh. Wow. That is insane. Photo for reference: https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/edit...

I have one of these shirts (different color) and get favorable comments from LOTR fans periodically who see me wearing it in public. The front just says "Save the Shire", and it only says "Palantir" in smaller lettering on the back.

It's a pretty good shirt, just going by people's reactions to it. I'm just talking about the shirt in isolation though, not in the larger context of what Palantir the company does for their business.

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

#136

Post by astine »

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.

There's a difference between supporting law enforcement generally and supporting specific law enforcement efforts. I personally want my local law enforcement to be fast and effective because I want them to keep me safe from crime, but I don't want them to violate my or other people's rights in the process of keeping me safe from crime. So, in that vein, I might not object to police gaining a specific new tool but I would object if I found out that the police were misusing it somehow.

The employees objecting to Palantir's work with ICE are probably not objecting to cooperation with border enforcement on the principle that border enforcement is immoral generally, but that recent activities by border enforcement are immoral. If it weren't for the internment camps at the border, we probably wouldn't be hearing about this.

There's a broader discussion about the 4th ammendment and Palantir's effect there, but I don't think that this particular protest is about that.

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

#137

Post by word-reader »

wpietri wrote: post #37
sp332 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly. I think it's reasonable (although perhaps naive) for people to have a sunny view of law enforcement. Especially when, like me, they're white men from middle-class backgrounds; I've never had a bad experience with law enforcement, despite having done some stupendously dumb-ass things. But even though I'm predisposed to view cops favorably, the stuff with ICE is shocking to me. America has a big chunk of histo…

Over 50% of Border Patrol officers are Hispanic; 20% of all ICE employees are Hispanic, with much higher percentage (e.g. 40%) in subsets such as field agents in Southern California.

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

#138

Post by ericmay »

CydeWeys wrote: post #133
tastygreenapple wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but none of these features are new, child seperation and children dying in ICE facilities happened under the Obama administration and it wasn't a big deal then. What changed?

Source? Every news article I've seen shows that the problem is far worse under Trump.

I'm not sure about how much worse things were. But I saw a source from NBC that says it was not practiced under the Obama administration although they very briefly considered it.[1]

This was a quote I thought relevant, however because I don't think it was rainbows and unicorns under Obama either:

"The Obama administration did detain families together — some indefinitely — in hopes of deterring future migrants back in 2014, earning protests and public outrage at the time." [1]

[1]https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/...

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

#139

Post by iron0013 »

bigj0n wrote: post #107
analogist wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think there is no difference in guilt between being a war criminal’s arm dealer and being a war criminal’s grocer?

ICE isnt a war criminal. They're a law enforcement agency

The similarity is in the fact that, like war criminals, they are committing acts that many would classify as crimes against humanity.

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

#140

Post by immaway »

fzeroracer wrote: post #63
creaghpatr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely a weird company to work for if you don't believe in enforcing laws, or only partial enforcement of laws; especially border laws.

Or maybe the fact that ICE has been overabusing their authority to also detain US citizens for weeks at a time despite providing evidence of their citizenship has got people wondering if they're the baddies. In addition to, you know, the horrible treatment of asylum seekers incl. things such as not providing flu vaccines.

Detainees are given provided food, shelter and medical treatment. Overcrowding can happen at time when you have a 1000 people at a time cross in a day at a single point. There are no cloud facilities.

What is your alternative?

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