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Comment by badman_ting | Hacker News Reader

Something about Palantir has creeped me the hell out ever since I lived in DC and used to see their ads in areas close to the Pentagon. I am sure its founder is every bit as brilliant as people In this article say.

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> the millions of pictures collected by San Leandro’s license plate cameras are now passed on to the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC), one of 72 federally run intelligence fusion organizations set up after 9/11. That’s where the photos are analyzed using software built by a company just across San Francisco Bay: Palantir.

it is beyond creepy, Stasi/KGB could only dream about it.

Extremely creepy: http://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-wikileaks-2011-2#-1 Their recruitment also reeks of creepiness, sending "confidential" letters to my work place (don't have that address listed anywhere, company has many buildings in the same city).

That document is from 2010. ArsTechnica and other places wrote about what came about when the shit hit the fan in 2011: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/02/the-ridiculous-pl...

From the article: "I have directed the company to sever any and all contacts with HB Gary," said the CEO of Palantir.

After getting caught. The fact is that the business they're in and the technology they're developing will continue to push them to do questionable things. They rely on large contracts with government and big corporations. They will have to judge (secretly) whether the use of their technology is moral or not. Do you think they will turn down hundreds of millions because their technology is being used for questionable moral purposes?

But they have a "batphone", that let's their employees make anonymous to report ethical abuses. Haha, batphone, isn't that quirky and cool and something we can get onboard with?

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