The data mining, surveillance and military technology company, Palantir got its start working for the Pentagon and the CIA. Palantir is at least in part, a global private surveillance network, cataloging and mapping interpersonal relationships between people.
Peter Thiel co-founded Palantir in 2004. Thiel is one of the co-founders of PayPal and he was also one of Trump’s earliest presidential campaign supporters.
Now, through Mijente research and ICE operational documents gathered from a Freedom of Information Act request, it has become evident that Palantir surveillance software has become the backbone of ICE’s efforts to track and separate families.
Palantir’s operations are shrouded in secrecy. Few know exactly how the data analytic software functions. The company is extremely profitable and provides services for multiple government agencies, including ICE, dozens of local, state, and federal government agencies and corporations like JP Morgan.
Emails obtained by WNYC show that software from Palantir powered ICE’s workplace raids.
During 2017 ICE workplace raids in New York, ICE notified agents that they needed to use Palantir’s mobile application, FALCON, “[REDACTION] we want all the team leaders to utilize the FALCON mobile app on your GOV iphones.”
Photos from the top: “ERO in Chicago” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is in the Public Domain and “Peter Thiel” by JD Lasica is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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