https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/some-notes-on-palantir/
"There is justified anger about governments relying on Palantir software. There
are also calls to write replacement software, perhaps imbued with European
values, and with less fascism.
And I’d love for that to happen pronto, but first we need to understand a few
things. It is not just the software.
“Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database
of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these—but even former
employees struggle to explain it” - Wired
From many governments’ behaviour, it is clear that they are Very Very Very
Attached to Palantir.
Very. It is often assumed that this is because certain
politicians are enamored of Palantir’s most awful politics. Birds of a feather
etc.
While this might be the case, something else is also going on.
Palantir software comes with exceptionally good hands-on support. People who
will integrate all your various data sets. Data from all over the organization
and country. Palantir-the-company this way acts as a valuable integrator. They
make stuff happen. They deliver police investigators and other government
employees the working integrated data tools they need.
Now, police and government organizations have for decades now (lamentably)
decided to not invest in their own IT-capacity. A typical police organization
has system administrators around, but these are not going to actively aid with
police investigations. They keep the printers running, that kind of thing.
I’m very aware there are pockets of excellence within most government
organizations. I’ve happened to work at and with a few even.
Now, we’d love to have more excellent computer support people in police forces
and government, but for a variety of sad reasons it is not happening. For one,
governments rarely pay even close to market rate for technical talent. But even
if we decide that “money is not everything”, the government mostly also does
not offer technical employees an inspiring environment to work and grow, nor
one in which they are truly valued.
You can motivate people with sufficient coins or with job satisfaction.
Governments typically
on average offer good technical staff neither of
these."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Cybersecurity: May 26, 2026
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-26-159268484
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
