Showing posts with label Palantir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palantir. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Documents offer rare insight on Ice’s close relationship with Palantir; The Guardian, September 22, 2025

 , The Guardian; Documents offer rare insight on Ice’s close relationship with Palantir

"Over the past decade, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) has amassed millions of data points that it uses to identify and track its targets – from social media posts to location history and, most recently, tax information.

And there’s been one, multibillion-dollar tech company particularly instrumental in enabling Ice to put all that data to work: Palantir, the data analytics firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, the rightwing mega-donor and tech investor.

For years, little was known about how Ice uses Palantir’s technology. The company has consistently described itself as a “data processor” and says it does not play an active role in any of its customers’ data collection efforts or what clients do with that information.

Now, a cache of internal Ice documents – including hundreds of pages of emails between Ice and Palantir, as well as training manuals, and reports on the use of Palantir products – offer some of the first real-world examples of how Ice has used Palantir in its investigations and during on-the-ground enforcement operations.

The documents, which were obtained by immigrant legal rights group Just Futures Law through a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by the Guardian, largely cover Palantir’s contract with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of Ice that is responsible for stopping the “illegal movement of people, goods, money, contraband, weapons and sensitive technology”."

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Tech giant Palantir helps the US government monitor its citizens. Its CEO wants Silicon Valley to find its moral compass; The Conversation, July 28, 2025

 Professor of Society & Environment, University of Technology Sydney , The Conversation; Tech giant Palantir helps the US government monitor its citizens. Its CEO wants Silicon Valley to find its moral compass

"Critics of those who misuse power tend to be outsiders. So, it’s striking that Alexander Karp, co-founder and CEO of data analytics giant Palantir Technologies, has written a book, with Palantir’s head of corporate affairs Nicholas Zamiska, calling on Silicon Valley to find its moral compass...

Karp has described Palantir’s work as “the finding of hidden things”. The New York Times described its work as sifting “through mountains of data to perceive patterns, including patterns of suspicious or aberrant behavior”.

Palantir has worked closely with United States armed forces and intelligence agencies across Democratic and Republican governments for 14 years. It has been criticised for enabling heightened government surveillance and loss of privacy among US citizens."

Monday, June 30, 2025

Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans; The Guardian, June 30, 2025

 , The Guardian; Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans

"Draw a circle around all the assets in the US now devoted to artificial intelligence.

Draw a second circle around all the assets devoted to the US military.

A third around all assets being devoted to helping the Trump regime collect and compile personal information on millions of Americans.

And a fourth circle around the parts of Silicon Valley dedicated to turning the US away from a democracy into a dictatorship led by tech bros.

Where do the four circles intersect?

At a corporation called Palantir Technologies and a man named Peter Thiel.

In JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, a “palantír” is a seeing stone that can be used to distort truth and present selective visions of reality. During the War of the Ring, a palantír falls under the control of Sauron, who uses it to manipulate and deceive.

Palantir Technologies bears a striking similarity. It sells an AI-based platform that allows its users – among them, military and law enforcement agencies – to analyze personal data, including social media profiles, personal information and physical characteristics. These are used to identify and surveil individuals."

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Close Trump Allies Sponsored the Military Parade, Raising Ethical Concerns; The New York Times, June 15, 2025

, The New York Times ; Close Trump Allies Sponsored the Military Parade, Raising Ethical Concerns

"Federal regulations prohibit the use of public office for the private gain of officeholders or their friends, relatives or nongovernmental affiliates, said Richard W. Painter, who served as the chief ethics lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office under President George W. Bush.

“The parade is being used for advertising by these entities with close business ties to the president,” Mr. Painter said in an interview. “You’re in a situation where the U.S. government has been used to endorse a product.”

If he had been Mr. Trump’s chief ethics lawyer, he added, he would have not wanted the sponsorships at all. Such an arrangement would be acceptable only if the companies were to pay for the entire event, Mr. Painter said, allowing the government to host the celebration without paying any tax dollars. The military parade was estimated to cost up to $45 million."