Palantir Accused of Being the Creepiest App
October 8, 2013
There is a new startup called Shadow that records your dreams and shares the info with the world. Sounds creepy, right? Yes, but The Telegraph gives the title to another startup, “Is ‘Shadow’ The Creepiest Startup Ever? Nom CIA Investment Palantir Still Owns The Crown.” Palantir Technologies still reigns supreme as the creepiest IT company, because its main business principle is that artificial intelligence software is not enough to track people. It also relies on human analysts coupled with automated data analysis. Palantir has dubbed this concept “intelligence automation.”
Palantir is the brainchild of Peter Thiel, with the participation of Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings. Its name derives from a Lord of the Rings artifact called a seeing stone, most often wielded by evil bad guys. Thiel developed Palantir’s technology from his PayPal venture to detect fraud. The success caught the attention of some very big clients: the CIA and Us Army.
Why makes it creepy?
“Though it seems quite clear that Palantir has a role to play in moves by the US and her allies – including the UK – to battle growing online threats from Russia, China and others, it definitely earns its Most Creepy Startup award. In 2010, Palantir itself was exposed as somewhat complicit in moves by Hunton & Williams (a US lobbying firm) to combat “the WikiLeaks Threat”. In early 2011, elements from Anonymous leaked documents that included the plan. The strategy proposed using Palantir software “as the foundation for all the data collection, integration, analysis, and production efforts”.”
Thiel does not take any direct responsibility for how his technology could be used for evil purposes. His company’s technology is used all over, mostly without any one knowing it. Right now it is watching you and me.
Whitney Grace, October 08, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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