Palantir Technologies

From Wikispooks
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Group.png Palantir Technologies   Crunchbase 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

Palantir Technologies is a software company with a reputation for secrecy[1] 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 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement — which directly uses its technology to fuel its controversial raids on undocument[ed] workers."[2]

Activities

Palantir has been called "Silicon Valley's Most Secretive Company".[3] and the "War on Terror's Secret Weapon".[4] "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."[5]

Palantir helped create the visual mapping software for XKeyscore, an NSA hacking tool that was disclosed by Edward Snowden.[6]

Ownership

As of December 2014, Peter Thiel was Palantir's largest shareholder.[7]

Military contracts

In 2018, Palantir won a $876 million contract from the US Army.[8]

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.”[9]

 

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