alt.hn

3/16/2026 at 11:57:33 AM

MoD sources warn Palantir role at heart of government is threat to UK security

 https://www.thenerve.news/p/palantir-technologies-uk-mod-sources-government-data-insights-security-state-secrets

by vrganj

3/16/2026 at 7:08:47 PM

Palantir is dragging a small independent Swiss investigative newspaper to court because they reported[1] about Palantir getting the door slammed in their face in by several Swiss government agencies including the military over the last years. No one wants this turd of a company.

[1] https://www.republik.ch/2026/02/18/how-tenaciously-palantir-...

by sschueller

3/16/2026 at 7:52:24 PM

Oracle 2.0.

by themafia

3/16/2026 at 4:35:58 PM

Obviously, just look at what the Palantir stones did to Saruman and Denethor. They're a corrupting force, both in the middle-earth case and in the our-earth case.

Thiel has made no secret of his intent to use technology to dispense with that pesky democracy problem that billionaires have, and Palantir is pretty obviously his attempt to do just that. It's a reductio-ad-absurdum argument against listening to your citizens:

You put it in the hands of a populist demagogue, the power to apply hyper-targeted pain to their enemies amplifies their darker tendencies, and when evil happens you say: "look, the people can't be trusted." Meanwhile, you use it to direct the pointy end of the state's stick towards people you don't like (because the demagogue is too lazy to actually use those hyper-targeting features themself) so you can interfere with democratic attempts to limit your power without bothering to pay for the pepper spray.

Nobody in their right mind would want their government anywhere near it.

by __MatrixMan__

3/16/2026 at 6:20:07 PM

I still don't understand why Theil and Karp decided to name their surveillance tech company after a device that is best known for being used by an evil dark lord to decieve and corrupt. It's like the Mitchell and Webb skit "are we the baddies" except they're the ones who designed the uniforms with skulls on them.

by Calavar

3/16/2026 at 7:17:59 PM

I don't think you have to understand why they made that decision, you just have to understand who they are and what they believe in. Just have a look at what they talk about, and what they are quoted as saying.

Then it will start to make sense.

by ljm

3/16/2026 at 7:23:36 PM

Because it's funny and they genuinely don't care whether or not they're bad guys

by thatguy0900

3/16/2026 at 6:53:40 PM

Well, it's not inherently any more evil than Fanta, is it?

by 0x3f

3/16/2026 at 6:36:28 PM

[dead]

by farisa_lives

3/16/2026 at 3:26:51 PM

Can someone explain why Palantir are seen as such a threat? My understanding is their product is a PowerBI++ and they don't host any user data themselves. Are people scared of backdoors?

by qweiopqweiop

3/16/2026 at 3:35:41 PM

Two Reasons:

1) It holds deeply sensitive data and does so in the US. In times of increased mistrust of the US, many (including myself) see that as a risky choice.

2) Speaking of mistrust in America and American corporations, have you heard their execs talk? It's absolute cuckoo-town:

> If they are not scared, they don’t wake up scared, they don’t go to bed scared, they don’t fear that the wrath of America will come down on them, they will attack us. They will attack us everywhere.

Well, you've convinced me. I'm scared of America, I'm scared of American companies and I'm scared of your company in particular.

Good job, I guess?

by vrganj

3/16/2026 at 3:54:09 PM

Are you sure they hold sensitive data themselves though? My understanding was they integrate their tools with customers own data and don't have access to it themselves (at least in theory).

Of course I agree that quote is insane and you can dislike them for political reasons, but I want to understand the technological fears and see if any are unfounded.

by qweiopqweiop

3/16/2026 at 4:20:53 PM

Part of the core offering is data washing.

by iinnPP

3/16/2026 at 6:39:07 PM

I’ve only had their platforms explained to me by them (palantir) at a conference but the mental model that stuck with me was more of an operating system than a single tool. Think AWS managed services + databricks + whatever library of ready made intelligence software they have already built for others.

They also have “forward deployed engineers” to help organizations actually use the platform. It looked complicated enough to probably be completely useless without these specialists, even in a “self hosted” setup.

The managed hosting also seems like a major selling point so many deployments that probably should be self hosted probably aren’t because muh managed services added value.

And the backdoors of course. There is no way it isn’t full of plausibly deniable “metrics endpoints” that helpfully spew out all the internal data if the right key comes knocking. There’s no way it’s auditable at the level of detail you would need compared to the value of the data and the sophistication of the potential attacker (NSA).

by efxhoy

3/16/2026 at 7:27:01 PM

Even if the software is mundane I don't think most people should want their country offloading sensitive spy stuff to a guy who's obsessed with the antichrist to the extent the Vatican itself is complaining he's going to Rome and giving secret speeches about it.

by thatguy0900