I’m confused by this shoehorning.
This article is about actual, not potential, abuse. It involves healthcare data the government owns being used in a novel and disturbing way. The only nexus to the private sector is in Palantir, but they aren’t bringing the data, just some analytic tools.
The article is about feeding a giant pile of metadata to a service and getting results. That pile was collected in a mundane manner as a part of everyday actions. People probably didn't think much of it at the time. Even if the potential for abuse occurred to them, clearly the vast majority swept the concern aside and went on about their day.
That's exactly what's happening with the internet giants as well. People embed analytics and bot detectors and fonts and who knows what else from major third party providers with hardly a second thought. Other people then navigate to those websites with little to no awareness of the potential for abuse.
This article is about a concrete example of such potential abuse that went on for many years before blindsiding a great many people when it was abruptly weaponized overnight.
So, before it's too late, we, the people potentially enabling this data abuse, must think about consequences and morals.
Also: today they come for Latinos, tomorrow can be your turn.
You're always being added to a list, and all of your metadata decides what lists you'll end up on in the future.