14 December 2019

Update To Earlier Post > Palantir Snags New U.S.Defense Department Contract

Yesterday the Defense Department announced one more multi-million dollar with Palantir .
The initial $110 million contract is part of a four-year, $440 million program called Vantage, formerly known as Army Leader Dashboard.
The deal promises to significantly deepen the Silicon Valley-based analytics company’s ties to the Pentagon. It is the second time in the past year that Palantir has won a front seat on a defense program of record, which has a dedicated line of funding from Congress. In March, it became the primary contractor for a separate Army program called Distributed Common Ground System, which is focused on battlefield intelligence.
Palantir Technologies is a private American software company that specializes in big data analytics. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, it was founded by Peter Thiel, Nathan Gettings, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen, and Alex Karp.
> Over time, it expanded throughout the commercial business world while building a data analytics platform called Foundry, which organizations of all types use to analyze their own data.
> The Vantage contract was awarded under a unique contract specification called Other Transaction Authority, which allows defense agencies to work with contractors to develop prototypes on an iterative basis. Such an approach allows them to sidestep the Federal Acquisition Regulation, a 2,010-page document largely written with giant military hardware purchases in mind.
Source: WaPo 
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RELATED CONTENT ON THIS BLOG:
19 July 2019
Palantir: It's More Than "Souped-Up" Surveillance Software >
Sooner or later, thanks to two reports years apart, we now know that Peter Thiel's Palantier (from the same dude that created 'Pay Pal) helped the National Security Agency spy on the entire world, is also used Law Enforcement Agencies and The Department of Homeland Security.
No doubt about it Now
Whatever data can be collected is collected.
Public Records Request Nets User's Manual For Palantir's Souped-Up Surveillance Software
Fri, Jul 19th 2019 10:44am— Tim Cushing
Techdirt.                       
"Palantir is the 800-pound gorilla of data analytics.
It has created a massive surveillance apparatus that pulls info from multiple sources to give law enforcement convenient places to dip into the data stream. Law enforcement databases may focus on criminals, but Palantir's efforts focus on everyone.
Whatever can be collected is collected.
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Palantir provides both the data and the front end, making it easy for government agencies to not only track criminal suspects, but everyone they've ever associated with.
Palantir is big. But being the biggest player in the market doesn't exactly encourage quality work or accountability.
Multiple problems have already been noticed by the company's numerous law enforcement customers -- including the company's apparent inability to responsibly handle data -- but complaints from agencies tied into multi-year contracts are pretty easy to ignore. Palantir says it provides "actionable data." Sounds pretty cool, but in practice this means things like cops firing guns at innocent people because the software spat out faulty suspect/vehicle descriptions.
Agencies must see the value in Palantir's products because few seem willing to ditch these data analytics packages. The company does a fairly good job dropping a usable interface on top of its data haystacks. It sells well. And it's proprietary, which means Palantir can get into the policing business without actually having to engage in the accountability and openness expected of government agencies.
Fortunately for the public, government agencies still have to respond to public records requests -- even if the documents sought detail private vendors' offerings. Vice has obtained part of a user's manual for Palantir Gotham, which is used by a number of state and federal agencies.
This software appears to be used by "fusion centers," the DHS-created abominations that do serious damage to civil liberties but produce very little usable intelligence . . .
READ MORE > https://www.techdirt.com 
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From The Intercept:
How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Helped the NSA Spy
on the Whole World
 February 22 2017 4:06 a.m.
"Donald Trump has inherited the most powerful machine for spying ever devised. How this petty, vengeful man might wield and expand the sprawling American spy apparatus, already vulnerable to abuse, is disturbing enough on its own. But the outlook is even worse considering Trump’s vast preference for private sector expertise and new strategic friendship with Silicon Valley billionaire investor Peter Thiel, whose controversial (and opaque) company Palantir has long sought to sell governments an unmatched power to sift and exploit information of any kind. Thiel represents a perfect nexus of government clout with the kind of corporate swagger Trump loves.
The Intercept can now reveal that Palantir has worked for years to boost the global dragnet of the NSA and its international partners, and was in fact co-created with American spies. 


 
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