Live data from Hacker News

ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

bmj.com

41–50 of 281 posts

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#41
post #9

The "small government" conservatives really showed their true faces in 2025 and 2026. Anyone espousing these ideas will not be taken seriously by me going forward.

The hypocrisy of the conservatives aside, the Democrats also end up doing nothing meaningful to thwart any of it when they are in power. The higher ranks of Democrats are almost as conservative as the Republicans. Palantir is not a post-2024 phenomenon. The data was always collected. They are just being brazen now.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#43

How are Palantir so effective (as this article is alluding)? From a cynical British perspective, when I think of government departments and civil servants. I think inefficiency, data siloing, politics and lack of communication between departments and also internally not communicating between teams. Not withstanding a lack of cooperating and willingness to change. Did Palantir have a political mandate, or can they jus…

who say they are effective? They just have contacts.

It's the privatization of what started as an intelligence program.

Recommended watching (The REAL Story Behind Palantir's Dystopian Pre-Crime Takeover (w/ Whitney Webb)):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3DFZFoJC5s

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#44
post #8

Part of the Miranda warning is "anything you say can and will be used against you." I think of the "will be" part as a lie, because they're usually not that diligent or competent even when they're that malicious. But it's still a good heuristic when it comes to giving your PII to the government. I used to be an outlier conspiracy theorist for believing that. To those coming around to it, welcome.

> it's still a good heuristic when it comes to giving your PII to the government The heuristic is to not participate in modern medicine?

Sometimes you have to give it up, sometimes not, which is why it's a heuristic and not a firm rule.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#45

How are Palantir so effective (as this article is alluding)? From a cynical British perspective, when I think of government departments and civil servants. I think inefficiency, data siloing, politics and lack of communication between departments and also internally not communicating between teams. Not withstanding a lack of cooperating and willingness to change. Did Palantir have a political mandate, or can they jus…

Are they effective? Do you have data on the number of people they've correctly identified vs false-positives. In fact, do you have any evidence they're even trying to limit false positives?

The reason they are able to very efficiently send a dozen ICE agents to a random persons home to hold them at gun point until they can prove their immigration status is because the goal is to send ICE agents around holding people at gun point and they're happy if they happen to also get it right sometimes.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#46
post #17

Remember: every bit of data collected through a google-analytic, doubleclick, etc. link can potentially be abused for this as well. Techies have a responsibility as well. Remove them from your applications, or replace them with safer alternatives, and don't log (meta-)data just because it might be useful one day.

> every bit of data collected through a google-analytic, doubleclick, etc. link can potentially be abused for this as well I’m confused by this shoehorning. This article is about actual, not potential, abuse. It involves healthcare data the government owns being used in a novel and disturbing way. The only nexus to the private sector is in Palantir, but they aren’t bringing the data, just some analytic tools.

You should still practice minimization of PII, also known as Data Minimization. Especially in the EU, where it's the law (GDPR).

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#47

How are Palantir so effective (as this article is alluding)? From a cynical British perspective, when I think of government departments and civil servants. I think inefficiency, data siloing, politics and lack of communication between departments and also internally not communicating between teams. Not withstanding a lack of cooperating and willingness to change. Did Palantir have a political mandate, or can they jus…

From what I've read is that they are not a product company. But they rather have a zoo of solutions. And they are hired by governments desperate to improve their IT, probably after the n-th issue going public. I highly doubt this would be legal in many states but who will (and can) check this anyway?

Of course it's tempting to throw everything into one huge database. But Jesus, this is like interns writing the Software...

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#48

If I'm reading this correctly, they're just straight up violating the law. They're sharing information with ICE under an obligation to share information of aliens, but they're actually sharing everyone's information in an effort to identify aliens. That seems like a pretty slam shut case if there were any mechanism to investigate and prosecute it.

> I'm reading this correctly, they're just straight up violating the law

HHS says “under the Immigration and Nationality Act, ‘any information in any records kept by any department or agency of the government as to the identity and location of aliens in the US shall be made available to’ immigration authorities.” If that’s true, they’re following the law.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#49

If I'm reading this correctly, they're just straight up violating the law. They're sharing information with ICE under an obligation to share information of aliens, but they're actually sharing everyone's information in an effort to identify aliens. That seems like a pretty slam shut case if there were any mechanism to investigate and prosecute it.

It has become quite clear in recent months that the the rule of law will not be enforced on the federal government or their allies.

Re: ICE and Palantir: US agents using health data to hunt illegal immigrants

#50

If I'm reading this correctly, they're just straight up violating the law. They're sharing information with ICE under an obligation to share information of aliens, but they're actually sharing everyone's information in an effort to identify aliens. That seems like a pretty slam shut case if there were any mechanism to investigate and prosecute it.

Where did you read they're sharing everyone's information?
Post reply on HN