In the future data privacy could be one of the biggest issues of our time with growing supervision capabilities from big enterprises and governments. China is a telling example of what could happen if data privacy and anonymity on the internet is completely eroded. On the other hand, there is also a big potential benefit that could come from evaluating the vast data sources we have and using them for good, like stopping terror attacks and other criminal activity before it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Palantir is a US based Data Mining enterprise that specializes in helping departments of state to evaluate big amounts of data. In the past it has come under criticism for its work with secret services and lack of transparency. One of the main tasks of Palantir is preemptively stopping criminal offenses [5]. The name \u2018Palantir\u2019 is a homage to the Lord of the Rings books from J.R.R. Tolkien [8]. In the books the so called \u2018Palant\u00edri\u2019 are crystal balls, that can be used to communicate over long distances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Palantir was founded in 2004 by Alex Karp, Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings. The investment firm In-Q-tel (a subsidiary of the CIA) helped finance it [5]. Since then, Palantir grew steadily. It has more than 2500 employees and operates from 25 international company locations. The main location was moved from the Silicon Valley and is now in Denver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a recent interview the CEO Alex Karp said the following about the company’s goals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The core mission of our company always was to make the West, especially America, the strongest in the world, the strongest it’s ever been, for the sake of global peace and prosperity, and we feel like this year we really showed what that would mean”<\/em><\/p>Alexander Karp, 2019 [9]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Who uses Palantir software?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
According to a letter to the investors that was made public in 2015 almost all departments of state in the US use Palantir software already in some way or the other [8]. This includes the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, the Air Force and many more. But that\u2019s not all. One of Palantir\u2019s main products fittingly called \u2018Gotham\u2019 is being used in more and more European departments. Even in Germany the company is working with local police forces like in Hesse to help with criminal investigations in cases of acts of violence endangering the state [5]. A similar program is also planned for North Rhine-Westphalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many private companies in Germany don\u2019t have hesitations to work with Palantir either. The CEO of Telekom recently met with the Palantir management although the subject of the meeting is unknown. Europe\u2019s biggest software company SAP was working with them until recently when Palantir terminated the contract [8].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the duration of the corona crisis Palantir provided some of its software for free to governments and health care agencies. The US, Great-Britain and Greece took the offer. The program called \u2018Foundry\u2019 is able to evaluate big data sets to prematurely recognize trends and developments. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the US used this to anticipate the utilization of hospital beds, ventilators and other medical supplies as well as the amount of patients and necessary medical personnel [5]. Studies showed that Palantir likes to attract customers with a cheap starting price while maintenance, extensions and training courses are very expensive [5].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Hesse the implementation of the Foundry software was also planned but decreasing infection rates led to it being no longer necessary. G\u00fcnter Rudolph of the SPD said it would have been better for the local government to realize that a collaboration with a company that is so closely tied to the CIA should be out of the question [5]. However, a growing number of companies and departments of state all over Europe seem to be unperturbed by this fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moral dilemma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gotham works by collecting and transforming different types of data in a collective data element and putting these data elements in a relation to each other [6]. This can for example help visualize relationships between people that might<\/em> be a threat to national security. In Hesse at least one Islamic terror attack and multiple heavy crimes were already prevented that way the German Federal Ministry of the Interior has said [5].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moral problem lies in the word \u2018might\u2019. Systems like this naturally also target and violate the privacy of innocent people. Recent decisions by the German government show that this \u2018moral dilemma\u2019 isn\u2019t seen as a big concern by many (see [4], [3]). The decision to expand the ability of the police and state security to install viruses on people\u2019s phones and laptops and the introduction of data retention laws for internet providers show that national security is still prioritized over individual privacy in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the US Palantir went into hot water for helping the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) find and deport illegal immigrants. In 2014 they built a system creating digital profiles of people suspected of violating immigration laws. Suspectedly thousands of illegal immigrants have been deported that way [2]. What followed were big protests by activist groups and even many Palantir employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CEO Alex Karp wasn\u2019t swayed by the opposing voices. He renewed his contract with the ICE and issued a statement at a company conference where he reiterates his company’s support for the government [5].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We started this contract under Obama, and obviously there’s a lot of legitimate concern about what happens on our border, how it happens, and what does the enforcement look like? \u2026 It’s a legitimate, complex issue. My personal position is we acknowledge the complexity. The people protesting, whom I respect, should also acknowledge that complexity.”<\/em><\/p>Alex Karp, 2019 [9]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Why does Palantir act that way?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Palantir is clearly positioning itself against other companies that have turned down government contracts in the past because of employee protests like Google and Microsoft. Terminating their contract with the ICE would mean worsening their standing with the government. The goal is to fill a niche as a viable partner for the government without fear of controversy [2]. Peter Thiel, one of the company’s CO-Founders even called Google’s withdrawal from a government contract \u2018treasonous\u2019 [2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To concerns of data privacy violations of his company Karp said the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Software projects with our nation’s defense and intelligence agencies, whose missions are to keep us safe, have become controversial, while companies built on advertising dollars are commonplace. For many consumer internet companies, our thoughts and inclinations, behaviors and browsing habits, are the product for sale. The slogans and marketing of many of the Valley’ s largest technology firms attempt to obscure this simple fact.”<\/em><\/p>Alex Karp, 2020 [1]<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Does the end justify the means?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Palantir seems to think that the end justifies the means. They clearly see their cause as more noble than those of other software firms that are just interested in making a profit by selling personalized user data for advertisement purposes. But they overlook the real damage their systems can cause by wrongly targeting innocent people and giving the responsibility over these sensitive matters to machine learning algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like in the case of a 31-year-old immigrant from Chicago who was arrested and detained for 9 months for erroneously being in a gang database that contained information prepared by one of Palantir\u2019s systems. Cases like this pose a good example of how a database that contains an abundance of unverified information can cause great damage [7].<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
[1] Ary Levy. Palantir CEO rips Silicon Valley in letter to investors.<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2020\/08\/25\/palantir-ceo-rips-silicon-valley-in-letter-to-investors.html last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n[2] Douglas MacMillan and Elizabeth Dwoskin. 2019. The war inside Palantir: Data-mining firm\u2019s ties to ICE under attack by employees (Aug. 2019).<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2019\/08\/22\/war-inside-palantir-data-mining-firms-ties-ice-under-attack-by-employees\/ last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n[3] Jakob Mayr. 2021. Streit um Vorratsdatenspeicherung. Er ist wieder da (Sep. 2021).<\/strong> (https:\/\/www.tagesschau.de\/ausland\/europa\/eu-vorratsdatenspeicherung-101.html last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[4] Malte Mansholt. 2021. Ausweitung des Bundestrojaners beschlossen. dabei wird die Polizei schon von Beweismasse “erdr\u00fcckt” (Jun. 2021).<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.stern.de\/digital\/online\/ausweitung-des-bundestrojaners-beschlossen—dabei-wird-die-polizei-schon-von-beweismasse–erdrueckt–30566098.html last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n[5] Mila Krull. Big-Data-Unternehmen geht an die B\u00f6rse: Was macht Palantir?<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.rnd.de\/digital\/was-ist-palantir-das-verbirgt-sich-hinter-dem-umstrittenen-software-unternehmen-aus-silicon-valley-IL7FVUQU5FFVNIR4AXESDGJAUI.html last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n[6] Palantir. Palantir website: Gotham.<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.palantir.com\/platforms\/gotham\/ last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n[7] Peter Waldman, Lizette Chapman, and Jordan Robertson. 2018. Palantir Knows Everything About You. Peter Thiel\u2019s data-mining company is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens. (Apr. 2018).<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/features\/2018-palantir-peter-thiel\/ last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n[8] Stephan D\u00f6rner. Alexander Karp: Das Genie hinter Palantir.<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.handelszeitung.ch\/unternehmen\/alexander-karp-das-genie-hinter-palantir-1072462 last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n[9] Will Feuer. Palantir CEO Alex Karp defends his company’s work for the government.<\/strong>
(https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2020\/01\/23\/palantir-ceo-alex-karp-defends-his-companys-work-for-the-government.html last checked 05.10.2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the future data privacy could be one of the biggest issues of our time with growing supervision capabilities from big enterprises and governments. China is a telling example of what could happen if data privacy and anonymity on the internet is completely eroded. 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