A piece on Palantir and it's dangers

In the current political landscape of the United States, you may have heard the name “Palantir” brought up in conversation at some point. Palantir, a data analytics company, has been the target of much scrutiny and debate over its anti-crime and anti-terrorism advantages, as well as severe privacy concerns and fears of mass surveillance. This is the reason why Palantir is a very important topic in the area of Homeland Security. First, to truly understand the importance and dangers of Palantir, the background of the company must be understood.

Palantir (Named after the “Seeing Stones” from The Lord of the Rings) was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Nathan Gettings, and others in Silicon Valley, but eventually moved its Headquarters to Denver, Colorado. When it first began, Palantir received its startup funding from In-Q-Tel, the Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm. Despite being founded over 20 years ago, Palantir only debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2020, ending 16 years of financial secrecy (Iliadis, A., & Acker, A., 2022).

Additionally, Palantir has been known to partner with Law Enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and local Police Departments such as the NYPD, LAPD, and NOPD (New Orleans Police Department). This has drawn criticism from many, as Palantir has been reported to have assisted the FBI and ICE with tracking potential undocumented immigrants and compiling evidence to deport them. Several Police Departments, such as the NOPD, have also been reported to use Palantir software to racially profile individuals using facial recognition and predictive policing. (Iliadis, A., & Acker, A., 2022). While some could argue that using Palantir software to combat illegal immigration could be beneficial, critics of Palantir can also argue that the same software could be used against all American citizens, raising concerns over free speech, privacy, and discrimination from racial profiling.

These concerns could be validated by Palantir Technologies’ collaboration with the U.S. Military and Law Enforcement to collect data on American citizens, data such as social media profiles, bank statements, health records, and physical characteristics, which could easily be used to spy on the general populace (Reich, R., 2025). This could pose a threat to free speech as well, as the AI-based software could be used to gather intelligence on those who criticize the government or its policies. Furthermore, Palantir’s open support and collaboration with President Trump’s administration, combined with its massive data collection initiative and substantial wealth, have sparked serious anxiety about the threat of Fascism or general authoritarianism in the government, as the current situation has been observed to mirror the rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, with the historical cooperation between Corporate and Government entities and their suppression of free speech and personal privacy, through their domestic espionage organizations (Reich, R., 2025).

Many see Palantir’s increasing prominence in American Politics as incredibly worrying and dangerous. Palantir’s involvement in military affairs can be seen in the ongoing war in Gaza. Peter Thiel has been open about Palantir Technologies’ involvement in the war, partnering with the Israeli Defense Forces. According to reports, the use of social media information and cellphone tracking has led to thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of deaths. According to multiple sources, approximately 150 Palestinian journalists have been targeted and killed, showing what Palantir’s information gathering is capable of (Setav.org, 2025).

Furthermore, Palantir was recently given a contract in the United Kingdom to manage the data of their National Health Service. With Palantir now getting involved in the medical industry, it could then use medical information such as biometrics, DNA, and more to use in autonomous drone warfare and target people or groups using that information. (Setav.org, 2025). A Company that is complicit in medical and social privacy violations, as well as war crimes, would be considered by many to be dangerous for society.

To address or mitigate the encroachment by Palantir, Americans can protest and call for Palantir to be defunded, or advocate for more intense study of the company. Another option is to increase restrictions on what kinds of information Palantir is allowed to gather, to protect the social, financial, and medical privacy of American citizens and the citizens of our allies. I personally see the strategic war-fighting and anti-crime-fighting capabilities of Palantir, but also recognize that it has already crossed several moral lines, such as being used in criminal behavior during wartime and collecting information on Americans that should be private. In Conclusion, I believe that the data Palantir is collecting can be used against American citizens by identifying and punishing those who criticize the government.

Iliadis, A., & Acker, A. (2022). The seer and the seen: Surveying Palantir’s surveillance platform. The Information Society, 38(5), 334–363. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2022.2100851

Reich, R. (2025, June 30). Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/30/peter-thiel-palantir-threat-to-americans

Palantir’s all-seeing eye: Domestic surveillance and the price of security. (2025, June 10). Setav.org. https://www.setav.org/en/palantirs-all-seeing-eye-domestic-surveillance-and-the-price-of-security