Palantir’s — an American software company that specializes in building platforms for large-scale data integration and artificial intelligence (AI) — unification with the United States government will be the downfall of our current democratic society. Palantir has been under suspicion since its conception, and concerns have only grown since April. Because of the company’s recent activities, there’s been a rise in paranoia throughout social media.
Palantir was incorporated on May 6, 2003 and, since then, has been involved in hundreds of million dollar governmental contracts. The company offers massive data analysis and organization software — essentially database management — to companies and governments. This business model, on its own, is hardly a rights infringement. However, Palantir never explicitly fights against civilian privacy, it simply gives others the tools to do so.
FALCON, Investigation Case Management, Gotham, Foundry and other similar programs have already been used by the government. The two main platforms Palantir promotes are “Gotham” and “Foundry.” Foundry visualizes tax and biometric data, while Gotham connects places, people and events in a dot-map. Together, the two programs essentially allow users to profile a person’s appearance, where they have been and who they know. Even back when these two programs were first introduced in 2016, many watchdog groups warned of personal privacy concerns.
History seems to be repeating itself with the recent introduction of the “ImmigrationOS” platform. ImmigrationOS is essentially a combination of Foundry and Gotham — a database containing all records across all government agencies. The contract for its creation is approximately $30 million and would give Immigration, Customs and Enforcement agents and Palantir access to people’s appearance, spending habits, who they know and even their current whereabouts through different platforms like License-Plate Readers. After gathering this information, it organizes the data to be easily available for anyone searching through the database. Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp has already received a letter signed by Senator Ron Wyder and three congressmen questioning the ethics and legality of this infringement of privacy. Access to this much information is too much power for anyone, let alone Palantir, the legislators argue.

Palantir’s founder Peter Thiel suggested the public need not be involved with the process when he said, “Maybe you could actually unilaterally change the world without having to constantly convince, beg and plead with people who are never going to agree through technological means.”
Thiel is the same man who hesitated when asked by a journalist whether or not he would “Like for humanity to survive.” He said, “Yes, but we should be able to transform bodies, minds and souls through technology in pursuit of biblical perfection.” Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp is no different, proclaiming on CNBC that, “A pagan religion that has infiltrated our university that basically says ‘everything that is good about America, everything that actually works, is ipso facto bad.’”
Pause to consider that the current beliefs spreading throughout universities has students fighting against United States privacy violations, wealth discrepancies, human rights violations, and aggression/support of violence in foreign countries. Karp throughout that interview explains that “The West as a notion and as a principle — is obviously superior.”
Not only that, but pretending otherwise is dangerous to all of society, he said.
Have you come to college hoping to change domestic policies and laws? Or even just to make the voice of you and your peers heard? Then be wary. Since September 25 of this year, a plethora of information for each citizen in the United States has been — and will continue to be — collected by these digital platforms. Especially persons “antithetical” or incompatible with American ideals. Even for those who don’t plan on participating in political activism, they should keep in mind that, most often, when a power is given to a person or entity it is used to the fullest extent.
In 1917, the Patriot Act made it illegal to share information about national defense where there was “reason to believe” it could be harmful. The following year, the act was changed to also criminalize speaking poorly of, or in a disloyalty to, the United States. Federal power has always been abused. American citizens have the right to privacy and free speech. Do not sit by and watch the rights of everyday Americans be diminished by the rich and powerful who are in charge.
Take action. Computers may help in the process, but it is only real people who can actually change the world for the better.