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This is somewhat tangential, but what exactly does Palantir do? From what I understand, they're a glorified consulting company that does data visualization, so why do they get so much attention?

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One of their primary functions is helping governments track people [1]. They market their suite as aiding the fight against crime/terrorism, but many argue that they're providing tools to governments to track their own citizens (see GP's Bloomberg link). I fall into the latter camp.

There are even some old (fairly unrevealing) demos on Youtube [2]

1 - https://www.wired.co.uk/article/joining-the-dots

2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51YYljuz4u4

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