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I think very few people would blame you for taking the mercenary approach here. However, you may wish to consider who it is you will be working for. Palantir i

I think very few people would blame you for taking the mercenary approach here. However, you may wish to consider who it is you will be working for. Palantir is deeply entrenched in the surveillance state. Though they may come at you with a decent offer, I believe it is ethically impermissible to use my skills in order to contribute to the deprivation of the human rights of others across the world. I do not have much positive to say about Facebook either, except that the bulk of their revenue does not come from three letter agencies. And they have in the past and will probably continue in the future to solve some interesting challenges in scalability.

kriro 12y ago
I agree with the general recommendation that you should consider those factors. I also agree with your rough assessment. Facebook is pretty sketchy as well on the privacy front but you're not really forced to use them if that's a concern. Having worked for Facebook is probably better for the CV, too if you decide to move on (debatable depending on the specific line of work. Palantir is obviously not an unknown).
- chimeracoder 12y ago
  > Facebook is pretty sketchy as well on the privacy front but you're not really forced to use them if that's a concern. I agree with what you're saying, but we should mention that Facebook's data collection extends far beyond what we generally think of as Facebook's users. (They collect data on friends of Facebook users as well - search for "dark profiles" to see what I mean, and they also collect data on people who simply view websites that have Facebook "share" buttons or the like). And it's expanding even further - if Facebook has its way, parts of the developing world will use Facebook as their primary (or only!) way of accessing the Internet. I agree that Facebook is slightly the lesser of two evils at the moment, but we're basically debating between Scylla and Charybdis[0] here. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scylla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scylla
pshinghal 12y ago
"except that the bulk of their revenue does not come from three letter agencies" I'm curious - how well informed are you of Palantir's revenue distribution?
eevilspock 12y ago
love your username. Now, to what degree do you also agree that it is ethically impermissible to use advertising to "monetize" traffic that you garner by telling people it's free? Is it really free? Is it really honest? What do you think about my take: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773 ? I typically include this quote when I critique the use of advertising on HN since a lot of people here live off of advertising: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -- Upton Sinclair

kriro 12y ago

I agree with the general recommendation that you should consider those factors. I also agree with your rough assessment. Facebook is pretty sketchy as well on the privacy front but you're not really forced to use them if that's a concern. Having worked for Facebook is probably better for the CV, too if you decide to move on (debatable depending on the specific line of work. Palantir is obviously not an unknown).

chimeracoder 12y ago
> Facebook is pretty sketchy as well on the privacy front but you're not really forced to use them if that's a concern. I agree with what you're saying, but we should mention that Facebook's data collection extends far beyond what we generally think of as Facebook's users. (They collect data on friends of Facebook users as well - search for "dark profiles" to see what I mean, and they also collect data on people who simply view websites that have Facebook "share" buttons or the like). And it's expanding even further - if Facebook has its way, parts of the developing world will use Facebook as their primary (or only!) way of accessing the Internet. I agree that Facebook is slightly the lesser of two evils at the moment, but we're basically debating between Scylla and Charybdis[0] here. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scylla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scylla

pshinghal 12y ago

"except that the bulk of their revenue does not come from three letter agencies" I'm curious - how well informed are you of Palantir's revenue distribution?

eevilspock 12y ago

love your username. Now, to what degree do you also agree that it is ethically impermissible to use advertising to "monetize" traffic that you garner by telling people it's free? Is it really free? Is it really honest? What do you think about my take: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773 ? I typically include this quote when I critique the use of advertising on HN since a lot of people here live off of advertising: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -- Upton Sinclair