This is your periodic briefing about a company I wanted to know more about, and so looked into it.
Palantir is a software company created in 2003 by Paypal founder and conservative activist Peter Thiel. He started it with money from In-Q-Tel, a CIA-backed fund.
Palantir specializes in big data analytics. The company develops software to help organizations make sense of massive data sets. Uses include detecting fraud, analyzing business data, waging war, and monitoring terrorism. Clients include CIA, CDC, and FBI.
The company’s close ties to government and intelligence agencies have made it secretive. In 2017, The Intercept published an article about the company’s work with immigration enforcement agencies. According to Tortoise Media, in early 2023, the German Federal Constitutional Court banned the use of Palantir’s crime data platform because of its use of surveillance data to inform predictive policing.
Critics (I am among them) say Palantir’s software is used by repressive governments (including the US government) to spy on their citizens. Fans say the company is helping soldiers wage war.
Strange fun fact: Palantir is named after the magic telepathic balls in Lord of the Rings.
Not so fun fact: Peter Thiel financially backed Hulk Hogan’s invasion of privacy lawsuit against Gawker Media, which ultimately resulted in Gawker declaring bankruptcy.
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