5 ms·

I'll risk even more downvotes -- but -- Palantir may be the creepiest company in the valley. The relationship they have with the DOD/NSA is simply unreal. thei

by sscalia 13y ago

I'll risk even more downvotes -- but -- Palantir may be the creepiest company in the valley. The relationship they have with the DOD/NSA is simply unreal. their offices on the east coast are full of high-ranking officials, generals, etc -- all the time. Palantir powers a lot of the retina-database insurgent tracking software in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've personally heard from US Army Special Operations forces that the imaging software they use to plan "missions" is powered by Palantir (but is frequently slow and buggy, so they resort to Google maps) I noticed that an Operator featured in Sanjay Gupthas CNN documentary on Marajuana had a Palantir patch next to his US Flag patch on his carrier chest rig. Creepy stuff.

sscalia 13y ago
Additionally - their logo, while they sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings (along with their name and product names) -- honestly looks like something supporting the earth.
- sbov 13y ago
  Looks like the top half of a person to me. Arms and head.
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  > sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings And, for those who missed the reference, the Palantir is the "all-seeing" device used by the formerly good wizard who defects to the dark side partway through the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir
  - derefr 13y ago
    Ah. It does look like a crystal ball on a stand, once you know what you're looking at.
  - Anderkent 13y ago
    Which the founders surely know. Unless you believe they model themselves after the evil wizards (and barely anyone ever thinks of themselves as evil), it's more of an acknowledgement of the risk.
    - pjmorris 13y ago
      I've wondered whether the name is intentionally a kind of warning. I'm assuming that the company founders knew LoTR well enough to understand what connotations 'Palantir' brings, and while I expect not every customer would, enough might that it might give pause.
- baku 13y ago
  here's an interesting quora post by Garry Tan about designing the Palantir logo -- it's both supposed to be a crystal ball & look like a human reading a book. you can read the whole thing here: http://www.quora.com/Logos/What-does-Palantirs-logo-symbolize-or-represent-and-what-is-its-history http://www.quora.com/Logos/What-does-Palantirs-logo-symboliz...
sscalia 13y ago
Apologies, my post is riddled with misspellings. I haven't had coffee yet.
rayiner 13y ago
I don't know what's "creepy" about it. Any DOD contractor will have high-ranking military people coming in and out. The military is an extremely high-tech organization, and there are lots and lots of people building all that software and hardware. Anecdote: when I was working at a company developing military radio technology, we spent a month doing field testing on a military base. There were a bunch of military people watching the trials (including a general), not to mention dozens of engineers from other defense contractors. There was nothing creepy or unusual about it. Who do you think builds the radios soldiers carry, the radio jammers they use, the binoculars they use, infrared gear, etc? It's all the product of thousands of projects by thousands of engineering teams, and every year there are probably thousands of occasions in which military brass drop by or check in to see what's up.
3am 13y ago
I won't downvote you, but I'll disagree with you. We live in the world we live in, and counter intelligence is necessary. The fact that it's privatized is nothing different that what's happening with KBR, Blackwater, Lockheed-Martin, L3, et al. It's more a function of political realities where critical functions are being subcontracted out. I'd rather have a Palantir than not have one and be outmaneuvered by other geopolitical rivals. edit: hey, rayiner, fair point. I think that logistics and 'private security contractors' are in a different category than traditional defense contractors. I'm not really sure where Palantir belongs on that spectrum, so I intentional casted a wide net.
- rayiner 13y ago
  At least with Blackwater you can raise the complaint that mercenaries privatize aspects of the military that should be under public control. But to the extent that we have soldiers who carry equipment, nobody seriously thinks that the military should build all that equipment itself.
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  >We live in the world we live in, and counter intelligence is critical. especially against your own citizens. Do "fusion center" and "Suspicious Activity Reports" generated by Palantir software ring a bell? If you remember history, the most amount of intelligence gathered and acted upon in USSR, East Germany were against their own people, while it was supposedly under the great goal of counter intelligence against [foreign] enemy spies, agents, collaborators. Fusion centers with modern equipment and software is KGB & Stasi wet dream.
  - rayiner 13y ago
    If you remember history, every single extant liberal democracy has had surveillance capabilities for decades, and continue to be healthy free societies.
    - VladRussian2 13y ago
      >If you remember history, every single extant liberal democracy has had surveillance capabilities for decades, and continue to be healthy free societies. the difference here is the actual massive surveillance (basically total possible by the technological means of the time) performed by the KGB/Stasi outside of the due process inside the jurisdiction of their respective countries. It is exactly the emerging characteristic of fusion centers and NSA activities. Please name an "extant liberal democracy" which has had such massive surveillance capabilities and applied them in such a way.
derefr 13y ago
> The relationship they have with the DOD/NSA is simply unreal. their offices on the east coast are full of high-ranking officials, generals, etc -- all the time. Silicon Valley in general has always, and will always, be heavily intertwined with military technology. http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/inconvenient-history-of-silicon-valley.html http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/inconvenient-history-of-...
patcon 13y ago
I would be much more creeped out if Peter Thiel wasn't running the company. I'm intrigued by that man, and for some reason he seems to be able to bank that for trust, at least for me.
SiVal 13y ago
It sounds to me as though you find anything security, law enforcement, or military-related to be inexcusably "creepy". Otherwise, it would seem pretty silly to describe customers hovering over critical suppliers as "simply unreal". Would high-ranking Apple execs constantly showing up at Foxconn offices show a relationship to Apple that you would describe as "simply unreal"? Otherwise, it would seem pretty silly to put scare quotes around Special Forces "missions". Do Special Forces not conduct real missions in your world, only so-called "missions"? "Creepy stuff"? Silly stuff.
- sscalia 13y ago
  Negative. I have nothing but love for LEO/MIL. However, when a company has access to state data, and banking data, and social data, and... etc. Not hard to see how they can build a network. You think DOD isn't begging Palantir for AMEX's customer data, even anonymized? Or any of the other financial institutions they provide services for? ... probably not. But it's easy to see how they could.

by sscalia 13y ago

sscalia 13y ago

Additionally - their logo, while they sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings (along with their name and product names) -- honestly looks like something supporting the earth.

sbov 13y ago
Looks like the top half of a person to me. Arms and head.
chimeracoder 13y ago
> sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings And, for those who missed the reference, the Palantir is the "all-seeing" device used by the formerly good wizard who defects to the dark side partway through the series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir
- derefr 13y ago
  Ah. It does look like a crystal ball on a stand, once you know what you're looking at.
- Anderkent 13y ago
  Which the founders surely know. Unless you believe they model themselves after the evil wizards (and barely anyone ever thinks of themselves as evil), it's more of an acknowledgement of the risk.
  - pjmorris 13y ago
    I've wondered whether the name is intentionally a kind of warning. I'm assuming that the company founders knew LoTR well enough to understand what connotations 'Palantir' brings, and while I expect not every customer would, enough might that it might give pause.
baku 13y ago
here's an interesting quora post by Garry Tan about designing the Palantir logo -- it's both supposed to be a crystal ball & look like a human reading a book. you can read the whole thing here: http://www.quora.com/Logos/What-does-Palantirs-logo-symbolize-or-represent-and-what-is-its-history http://www.quora.com/Logos/What-does-Palantirs-logo-symboliz...

sscalia 13y ago

Apologies, my post is riddled with misspellings. I haven't had coffee yet.

rayiner 13y ago

I don't know what's "creepy" about it. Any DOD contractor will have high-ranking military people coming in and out. The military is an extremely high-tech organization, and there are lots and lots of people building all that software and hardware. Anecdote: when I was working at a company developing military radio technology, we spent a month doing field testing on a military base. There were a bunch of military people watching the trials (including a general), not to mention dozens of engineers from other defense contractors. There was nothing creepy or unusual about it. Who do you think builds the radios soldiers carry, the radio jammers they use, the binoculars they use, infrared gear, etc? It's all the product of thousands of projects by thousands of engineering teams, and every year there are probably thousands of occasions in which military brass drop by or check in to see what's up.

3am 13y ago

I won't downvote you, but I'll disagree with you. We live in the world we live in, and counter intelligence is necessary. The fact that it's privatized is nothing different that what's happening with KBR, Blackwater, Lockheed-Martin, L3, et al. It's more a function of political realities where critical functions are being subcontracted out. I'd rather have a Palantir than not have one and be outmaneuvered by other geopolitical rivals. edit: hey, rayiner, fair point. I think that logistics and 'private security contractors' are in a different category than traditional defense contractors. I'm not really sure where Palantir belongs on that spectrum, so I intentional casted a wide net.

rayiner 13y ago
At least with Blackwater you can raise the complaint that mercenaries privatize aspects of the military that should be under public control. But to the extent that we have soldiers who carry equipment, nobody seriously thinks that the military should build all that equipment itself.
VladRussian2 13y ago
>We live in the world we live in, and counter intelligence is critical. especially against your own citizens. Do "fusion center" and "Suspicious Activity Reports" generated by Palantir software ring a bell? If you remember history, the most amount of intelligence gathered and acted upon in USSR, East Germany were against their own people, while it was supposedly under the great goal of counter intelligence against [foreign] enemy spies, agents, collaborators. Fusion centers with modern equipment and software is KGB & Stasi wet dream.
- rayiner 13y ago
  If you remember history, every single extant liberal democracy has had surveillance capabilities for decades, and continue to be healthy free societies.
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    >If you remember history, every single extant liberal democracy has had surveillance capabilities for decades, and continue to be healthy free societies. the difference here is the actual massive surveillance (basically total possible by the technological means of the time) performed by the KGB/Stasi outside of the due process inside the jurisdiction of their respective countries. It is exactly the emerging characteristic of fusion centers and NSA activities. Please name an "extant liberal democracy" which has had such massive surveillance capabilities and applied them in such a way.

derefr 13y ago

> The relationship they have with the DOD/NSA is simply unreal. their offices on the east coast are full of high-ranking officials, generals, etc -- all the time. Silicon Valley in general has always, and will always, be heavily intertwined with military technology. http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/inconvenient-history-of-silicon-valley.html http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/inconvenient-history-of-...

patcon 13y ago

I would be much more creeped out if Peter Thiel wasn't running the company. I'm intrigued by that man, and for some reason he seems to be able to bank that for trust, at least for me.

SiVal 13y ago

It sounds to me as though you find anything security, law enforcement, or military-related to be inexcusably "creepy". Otherwise, it would seem pretty silly to describe customers hovering over critical suppliers as "simply unreal". Would high-ranking Apple execs constantly showing up at Foxconn offices show a relationship to Apple that you would describe as "simply unreal"? Otherwise, it would seem pretty silly to put scare quotes around Special Forces "missions". Do Special Forces not conduct real missions in your world, only so-called "missions"? "Creepy stuff"? Silly stuff.

sscalia 13y ago
Negative. I have nothing but love for LEO/MIL. However, when a company has access to state data, and banking data, and social data, and... etc. Not hard to see how they can build a network. You think DOD isn't begging Palantir for AMEX's customer data, even anonymized? Or any of the other financial institutions they provide services for? ... probably not. But it's easy to see how they could.