Re-run: How Palantir's Spy Tool for Cops Works

<p>This is a re-run of an episode originally released on July 18th, 2019 </p><p><br></p><p>A Silicon Valley company with a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">history of CIA funding</a>, a suite of<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/palantirs-ipo-plans-just-secretive-203808135.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> highly sought after intelligence software tools</a>, and a gallivanting billionaire founder with <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-signals-scrutiny-of-googles-ties-with-china-after-thiel-comments-11563285110" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">connections to the Trump Administration</a> is set to become <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-24/palantir-s-hotly-anticipated-ipo-set-to-slide-to-2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">one of the biggest IPOs in recent memory</a>.</p><p><br></p><p>Yet many outside of the infosec world don’t even know its name or that it even exists—a sharp difference <a href="https://www.palantir.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Palantir</a> doesn’t share with other similar-sized startups based out of the Silicon Valley.</p><p><br></p><p>But Palantir’s surveillance software, which essentially siphons up monumental amounts of data on the public using state, police, and federal databases can map interpersonal relationships between people and provide that info to the fingertips of police and spies in a matter of seconds.</p><p><br></p><p>Among the list of past and current Palantir clients are the NSA, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement—which directly uses its <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj9ez3/why-protesters-want-palantir-to-disarmice" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">technology to fuel its controversial raids on undocument workers</a>.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Motherboard reporter Caroline Haskins <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kx4z8/revealed-this-i