WASHINGTON (TRT World): The firm is closely linked to the CIA and Israel,while standing accused of multiple counts of human rights violations.
Nearly two decades after the company was founded using a CIA investment,Palantir Technologies went public in a major stock market offering.
But in spite of the IPO, the company direction was already bought at birthby the CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, which invests in companies thatenhance its reach, power and capacity for espionage. While In-Q-Tel claimsto be independent from the CIA, it only invests with CIA approval.
For Peter Thiel, with an estimated net worth of about $22 billion, it’sbeen a profitable arrangement.
For the CIA, data mining, computing and surveillance are the keys to thefuture, and that’s where Palantir comes in.
The Myth
Palantir first became notorious for stories that circulated alleging thatthe software it designed was responsible for finding Osama bin Laden.Newspapers picked up the story from former Navy Seal Mark Bowden’s book,detailing his role in hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden.
He credited them with perfecting a Pentagon data mining and analysisprogram started by retired US Rear Admiral John Pointdexter, once foundguilty for his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
Pointdexter led a program called ‘Total Information Awareness’, which wouldserve as the prototype for sweeping surveillance programs later developedby the NSA, and exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The company has cheekily reshared the news on its own website, flirtingwith mystery. Peter Thiel’s co-founder Alex Carp, didn’t dismiss theallegations.
“That’s one of those stories we’re not allowed to comment about,” he saidin an interview.
But what does Palantir do?
Its sales pitch gives a lot away. It’s named after a crystal ball in Lordof the Rings, which allows one to see all and know all, in the present andfuture.
In the wake of 9/11, Palantir positioned itself as a pro-militarytechnology company working towards utopia.
How did they do it?
They engineered a software that collects and churns through huge amounts ofdata, from fingerprints, phone records, tips, known connections, satelliteimagery, bank records, and social media connections, before hitting gold.
The end result? Allowing its users to spot hidden relationships andnetworks, uncover terrorist activity, and even predict attacks.
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But this is nothing new. What Palantir brings is a slick and smoothinterface that’s easy to use, requiring no external maintenance ormanagement.
In a nutshell, Palantir solved one of intelligence’s oldest problems: youcan collect all the information in the world, but you’ll still need a lotof human help to make sense of it.
For the first time, that equation’s been reversed, and the easily installedprogram helps its user.
Going mainstream
While there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that, Palantir toes the edgeof a very fine line: providing governments with the capacity to trackterrorists, dissidents and undesirables with ease, while also selling itsservices and espionage capabilities to the highest bidder.
Merck pharmaceuticals is one of their clients, and is credited withspeeding up drug discoveries. United Airlines uses them to plan more costeffective flight routes.
But its software could also be used for more nefarious purposes, to surveilminorities, track immigrants, and more controversially to support Israel’smilitary-technology complex.
Murky reputation
The company has been implicated in a number of data scandals, mostprominent being its alleged involvement in the Cambridge Analytica breach,which played a role in influencing US elections and the Brexit vote.
In the breach, Cambridge Analytica mined the data of millions of socialmedia users, applying cutting-edge psychological analysis methods todetermine the best way to influence voters for their client’s ends.
Palantir is also under fire from human rights organisations given itsextensive contracts with the US Department of Homeland Security, and USImmigration for providing them with software to help them find, arrest anddeport immigrants perceived to have entered the country illegally.
While many are deeply sceptical of the combination of profit-orientedbusiness and surveillance, it was first put on display in a proposal by aPalantir employee to Washington, proposing methods to crack the innerworkings of WikiLeaks. Included in his proposal were suggestions fordisinformation and cyberattacks.
Palantir was also responsible for suggesting creating misinformationsurrounding journalists, including Pulitzer Prize Winner Glenn Greenwald,for his articles in support of Wikileaks.
Israeli connection
Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel gets around. He’s also an investor inCarbyne, co-owned by the late alleged paedophile billionaire, JefferyEpstein, and members of the Israeli political and intelligenceestablishment. Deeply similar to Palantir, Carbyne isn’t a normaltechnology company either. It’s deeply connected to Israeli intelligencedivision Unit 8200, whose members often go into business but maintain deepties to the Israel.
