Difference between revisions of "Palantir Technologies"

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{{group
 
{{group
 
|type=commercial
 
|type=commercial
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|constitutes=tech company
 
|logo=Palantir company logo.png
 
|logo=Palantir company logo.png
 
|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies
 
|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies
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|crunchbase=https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/palantir-technologies
 
|crunchbase=https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/palantir-technologies
 
|website=https://www.palantir.com
 
|website=https://www.palantir.com
|founders=Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, Nathan Gettings
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|founders=Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen (entrepreneur), Nathan Gettings
 
|start=2004
 
|start=2004
 
|num_staff=1500
 
|num_staff=1500
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|youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/Palantir
 
|youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/Palantir
 
|powerbase=http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Palantir_Technologies
 
|powerbase=http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Palantir_Technologies
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|description=CEO [[Alex Karp]] says: "Palantir is supporting [[Israel]] in every way we can"<ref>''[https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-war-uk-healthcare-workers-blockade-palantir-london-support-israel-palestine "War on Gaza: UK healthcare workers 'blockade' Palantir office over support for Israel"]''</ref>
 
}}
 
}}
'''Palantir Technologies''' is a software company which focuses on [[mass surveillance]] and data analysis. It is closely connected to the [[MICC]].
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'''Palantir Technologies''' is a software company with a reputation for secrecy<ref>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa7bkn/these-videos-show-how-palantir-tracks-leakers-protesters-and-prisoners</ref> which focuses on [[mass surveillance]] and data analysis. It is closely connected to the [[MICC]]; "among the list of past and current Palantir clients are the [[NSA]], [[CIA]], [[Department of Homeland Security]] and [[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]] — which directly uses its technology to fuel its controversial raids on undocument[ed] workers."<ref>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gy4awq/how-palantirs-spy-tool-for-cops-works</ref>
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Palantir specialises in [[AI]]-powered military and surveillance technology and data analytics, working with the [[CIA]] and the [[UK Ministry of Defence]]. The company has provided military and surveillance technology to the [[Israeli]] government for years, including predictive policing services used as part of the occupation to systematically harass and detain [[Palestinians]].<ref>''[https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/12/health-workers-shut-down-gaza-war-profiteer "Health Workers Shut Down Gaza War Profiteer"]''</ref>
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In November 2023, [[NHS England]] announced that Palantir had been awarded a £330 million contract to develop the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP), a software system that is intended to make it easier to share patient information and analyse wider health trends across the health service.<ref>''[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/business/palantir-nhs-uk-health-contract-thiel.html "Palantir Wins Major UK Health Contract Despite Criticism"]''</ref>
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==Protest in London==
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[[File:Palantir_in_the_NHS.jpeg|320px|right|thumb|Health Workers Shut Down Gaza War Profiteer]]
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On 21 December 2023, hundreds of health workers and pro-[[Palestine]] demonstrators blockaded Palantir's [[UK]] headquarters in [[London]] where they accused the firm of being complicit in [[war crimes]] in the [[2023 Gaza−Israel conflict]].
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Holding placards reading, “Palantir aids [[apartheid]]” and chanting, “Palantir – blood on your hands”, they called for the [[NHS]] contract to be cancelled. Jessica, a nurse and member of "Health Workers for a Free Palestine", said:{{QB|
 +
“It should be unthinkable for the [[NHS]] to do grubby deals with a company which is complicit in, and profiting from, [[Israel]]’s systematic destruction of healthcare facilities, resulting in the killing in [[Gaza]] of more healthcare workers in the last ten weeks than the total number killed in all countries in conflict globally last year.
 +
 
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“The entire purpose of the [[NHS]] is the preservation of life. As health workers we cannot turn a blind eye to the health service being implicated in the ongoing [[genocide]] in [[Gaza]] and the slaughter of our colleagues – fellow nurses, doctors, dentists, medical students and other health workers – and their patients.
 +
 
 +
“We’re here to blockade and disrupt Palantir’s blood-soaked business, and we will continue mobilising until [[NHS England]] agrees to keep our [[NHS]] data out of bloodstained hands.” <ref>''[https://www.independent.co.uk/business/protesters-blockade-office-of-tech-giant-with-nhs-contract-over-ties-to-israel-b2467728.html "Protesters blockade office of tech giant with NHS contract over ties to Israel"]''</ref>}}
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==Activities==
 
==Activities==
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{{YouTubeVideo
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|code=4LQCsPbA6rU
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|align=right
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|width=350px
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|caption=''How Palantir And Its Data-Mining Empire Became So Controversial'', [[CNBC]], September 2020
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|date=
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}}
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Palantir has been called "Silicon Valley's Most Secretive Company".<ref>https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/inside-palantir-silicon-valleys-most-secretive-company</ref> and the "[[War on Terror]]'s Secret Weapon".<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-11-22/palantir-the-war-on-terrors-secret-weapon</ref> "Founded in 2004 by Peter Thiel and some fellow PayPal alumni, Palantir cut its teeth working for the Pentagon and the CIA in Afghanistan and Iraq. The company’s engineers and products don’t do any spying themselves; they’re more like a spy’s brain, collecting and analyzing information that’s fed in from the hands, eyes, nose, and ears. The software combs through disparate data sources—financial documents, airline reservations, cellphone records, social media postings—and searches for connections that human analysts might miss. It then presents the linkages in colorful, easy-to-interpret graphics that look like spider webs."<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/</ref>
 
Palantir has been called "Silicon Valley's Most Secretive Company".<ref>https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/inside-palantir-silicon-valleys-most-secretive-company</ref> and the "[[War on Terror]]'s Secret Weapon".<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-11-22/palantir-the-war-on-terrors-secret-weapon</ref> "Founded in 2004 by Peter Thiel and some fellow PayPal alumni, Palantir cut its teeth working for the Pentagon and the CIA in Afghanistan and Iraq. The company’s engineers and products don’t do any spying themselves; they’re more like a spy’s brain, collecting and analyzing information that’s fed in from the hands, eyes, nose, and ears. The software combs through disparate data sources—financial documents, airline reservations, cellphone records, social media postings—and searches for connections that human analysts might miss. It then presents the linkages in colorful, easy-to-interpret graphics that look like spider webs."<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/</ref>
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Palantir helped create the visual mapping software for [[XKeyscore]], an [[NSA]] [[hacking]] tool that was disclosed by [[Edward Snowden]].<ref>https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peter-thiels-palantir-allegedly-helped-nsa-spy-programme-xkeyscore-new-snowden-documents-reveal-1608147</ref>
  
 
==Ownership==
 
==Ownership==
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==Military contracts==
 
==Military contracts==
 
In 2018, Palantir won a $876 million contract from the [[US Army]].<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/peter-thiel-s-palantir-wins-876-million-u-s-army-contract</ref>
 
In 2018, Palantir won a $876 million contract from the [[US Army]].<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/peter-thiel-s-palantir-wins-876-million-u-s-army-contract</ref>
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==Cambridge Analytica==
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On 27 March 2018, [[whistleblower]] [[Christopher Wylie]] told a [[House of Commons]] select committee that Palantir had worked with [[Cambridge Analytica]]:
 +
 +
“That was not an official contract between Palantir and [[Cambridge Analytica]], but there were Palantir staff that would come into the office and work on that data, and helped build the models we were working on.”<ref>''[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/27/palantir-worked-with-cambridge-analytica-on-the-facebook-data-whistleblower.html "Palantir worked with Cambridge Analytica on the Facebook data it acquired, whistleblower alleges"]''</ref>
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==COVID-19==
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In early April "The Silicon Valley company said its technology is helping officials predict the locations of outbreaks and determine where to deploy medical staff and supplies, but the initiative is testing governments’ ability to balance privacy with public health."<ref>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-02/coronavirus-news-palantir-gives-away-data-mining-tools</ref> Palantir was providing COVID-19 tracking software to the [[CDC]] and [[NHS]] by April 2020 and was pitching to European health agencies. It was been awarded various contracts as a result of [[COVID-19]], and has accessed health data from UK<ref>https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/controversial-tech-firm-palantir-23m-nhs-data-deal/</ref> as well as the US.
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===Tiberius===
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Palantir developed Tiberius, a platform to facilitate the rollout of vaccines.<ref>https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8868227/Palantir-working-government-track-distribution-administration-COVID-19-vaccines.html</ref>The [[Illinois]] state government's [[COVID-19 jab]] plan describes it as "a vaccine allocation tool to be utilized at the state level... designed to calculate each jurisdiction’s allocation... developed by [[Operation Warp Speed]]".<ref>https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/vaccination-plan</ref> [[CBS]] News described it as "a custom computer program that will track the whole endeavour".<ref>https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/general-in-charge-of-covid-vaccine-distribution-worries-many-wont-take-it/ar-BB1aLqrf</ref>
 +
<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/16/covid-19-vaccine-data-supply-chain-software-immunization-registry-tiberius/3879655001/</ref>
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{{SMWDocs}}
 
{{SMWDocs}}
 
==References==
 
==References==
 
{{reflist}}
 
{{reflist}}

Latest revision as of 15:12, 21 December 2023

Group.png Palantir Technologies  
(Tech companyCrunchbase Powerbase Website YouTubeRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Palantir company logo.png
Formation2004
Founder• Peter Thiel.jpg Peter Thiel
• Alex Karp.jpg Alex Karp
•  Joe Lonsdale
•  Stephen Cohen (entrepreneur)
•  Nathan Gettings
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California
Type commercial
Staff1,500
Interest ofBarrett Brown
Member ofCouncil on Foreign Relations/Corporate Members, WEF/Strategic Partners
CEO Alex Karp says: "Palantir is supporting Israel in every way we can"[1]

Palantir Technologies is a software company with a reputation for secrecy[2] which focuses on mass surveillance and data analysis. It is closely connected to the MICC; "among the list of past and current Palantir clients are the NSA, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which directly uses its technology to fuel its controversial raids on undocument[ed] workers."[3]

Palantir specialises in AI-powered military and surveillance technology and data analytics, working with the CIA and the UK Ministry of Defence. The company has provided military and surveillance technology to the Israeli government for years, including predictive policing services used as part of the occupation to systematically harass and detain Palestinians.[4]

In November 2023, NHS England announced that Palantir had been awarded a £330 million contract to develop the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP), a software system that is intended to make it easier to share patient information and analyse wider health trends across the health service.[5]

Protest in London

Health Workers Shut Down Gaza War Profiteer

On 21 December 2023, hundreds of health workers and pro-Palestine demonstrators blockaded Palantir's UK headquarters in London where they accused the firm of being complicit in war crimes in the 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict.

Holding placards reading, “Palantir aids apartheid” and chanting, “Palantir – blood on your hands”, they called for the NHS contract to be cancelled. Jessica, a nurse and member of "Health Workers for a Free Palestine", said:

“It should be unthinkable for the NHS to do grubby deals with a company which is complicit in, and profiting from, Israel’s systematic destruction of healthcare facilities, resulting in the killing in Gaza of more healthcare workers in the last ten weeks than the total number killed in all countries in conflict globally last year.

“The entire purpose of the NHS is the preservation of life. As health workers we cannot turn a blind eye to the health service being implicated in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the slaughter of our colleagues – fellow nurses, doctors, dentists, medical students and other health workers – and their patients.

“We’re here to blockade and disrupt Palantir’s blood-soaked business, and we will continue mobilising until NHS England agrees to keep our NHS data out of bloodstained hands.” [6]

Activities

How Palantir And Its Data-Mining Empire Became So Controversial, CNBC, September 2020

Palantir has been called "Silicon Valley's Most Secretive Company".[7] and the "War on Terror's Secret Weapon".[8] "Founded in 2004 by Peter Thiel and some fellow PayPal alumni, Palantir cut its teeth working for the Pentagon and the CIA in Afghanistan and Iraq. The company’s engineers and products don’t do any spying themselves; they’re more like a spy’s brain, collecting and analyzing information that’s fed in from the hands, eyes, nose, and ears. The software combs through disparate data sources—financial documents, airline reservations, cellphone records, social media postings—and searches for connections that human analysts might miss. It then presents the linkages in colorful, easy-to-interpret graphics that look like spider webs."[9]

Palantir helped create the visual mapping software for XKeyscore, an NSA hacking tool that was disclosed by Edward Snowden.[10]

Ownership

As of December 2014, Peter Thiel was Palantir's largest shareholder.[11]

Military contracts

In 2018, Palantir won a $876 million contract from the US Army.[12]

Cambridge Analytica

On 27 March 2018, whistleblower Christopher Wylie told a House of Commons select committee that Palantir had worked with Cambridge Analytica:

“That was not an official contract between Palantir and Cambridge Analytica, but there were Palantir staff that would come into the office and work on that data, and helped build the models we were working on.”[13]

COVID-19

In early April "The Silicon Valley company said its technology is helping officials predict the locations of outbreaks and determine where to deploy medical staff and supplies, but the initiative is testing governments’ ability to balance privacy with public health."[14] Palantir was providing COVID-19 tracking software to the CDC and NHS by April 2020 and was pitching to European health agencies. It was been awarded various contracts as a result of COVID-19, and has accessed health data from UK[15] as well as the US.

Tiberius

Palantir developed Tiberius, a platform to facilitate the rollout of vaccines.[16]The Illinois state government's COVID-19 jab plan describes it as "a vaccine allocation tool to be utilized at the state level... designed to calculate each jurisdiction’s allocation... developed by Operation Warp Speed".[17] CBS News described it as "a custom computer program that will track the whole endeavour".[18] [19]


 

Related Document

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:Civil Liberty Vanishesblog post6 May 2020Craig Murray"Serious questions have to be asked about why the UK government has developed its own unique app, universally criticised for its permanent central data collection and ability to identify individuals from their unique codes. That this is overseen by NHSX CEO Matthew Gould who held all those secret meetings with Liam Fox and Adam Werritty, including with Mossad, frankly stinks."
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References

  1. "War on Gaza: UK healthcare workers 'blockade' Palantir office over support for Israel"
  2. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa7bkn/these-videos-show-how-palantir-tracks-leakers-protesters-and-prisoners
  3. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gy4awq/how-palantirs-spy-tool-for-cops-works
  4. "Health Workers Shut Down Gaza War Profiteer"
  5. "Palantir Wins Major UK Health Contract Despite Criticism"
  6. "Protesters blockade office of tech giant with NHS contract over ties to Israel"
  7. https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/inside-palantir-silicon-valleys-most-secretive-company
  8. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-11-22/palantir-the-war-on-terrors-secret-weapon
  9. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/
  10. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peter-thiels-palantir-allegedly-helped-nsa-spy-programme-xkeyscore-new-snowden-documents-reveal-1608147
  11. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014/12/11/palantir-aiming-to-raise-400-million-in-new-round/
  12. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-09/peter-thiel-s-palantir-wins-876-million-u-s-army-contract
  13. "Palantir worked with Cambridge Analytica on the Facebook data it acquired, whistleblower alleges"
  14. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-02/coronavirus-news-palantir-gives-away-data-mining-tools
  15. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/controversial-tech-firm-palantir-23m-nhs-data-deal/
  16. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8868227/Palantir-working-government-track-distribution-administration-COVID-19-vaccines.html
  17. https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/vaccination-plan
  18. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/general-in-charge-of-covid-vaccine-distribution-worries-many-wont-take-it/ar-BB1aLqrf
  19. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/16/covid-19-vaccine-data-supply-chain-software-immunization-registry-tiberius/3879655001/