The Nine Most Shocking Revelations in the Palantir Leak

Yikes, this one is going to hurt: “Leaked Palantir Doc Reveals Uses, Specific Functions And Key Clients.”

“TechCrunch has received a private document from 2013 which reveals [Palantir’s] extensive trove of data analysis tools and lists many of its key clients,” the site says. This is Palantir, the data analysis company that contracts with the government and military. Palantir, the enterprise software company to our nation’s most secretive agencies. Palantir, the Peter Thiel brainchild. Palantir, the defense contractor named after Tolkien’s magical seeing stones. Let’s see:

1. Palantir allows “litigators and the police to make connections otherwise invisible”

2. Palantir “provides users with what seems like a revolutionary interface”

3. “Detectives love the type of information it [Palantir] provides. They can now do things that we could not do before. They can now exactly see great information and the links between events and people. It’s brought great success to LAPD. It supports the cops on the streets and the officers doing the investigations. It is a great tool. They are becoming more efficient and more effective cops. Palantir is allowing them to better serve the public.”

4. Palantir “is a smarter way of displaying data for analysis by humans.”

5. Palantir “is even able to provide immunity to fraud thanks to strategies the founders learned while still at PayPal.”

6. Palantir is recommended by “96% of the surveyed war fighters in Afghanistan”

7. “Without Palantir, [insurgents] would have already moved onto a different location by the time the field agents received the results.”

8. Palantir is, according to a former marine and current military contractor, “the combination of every analytical tool you could ever dream of. You will know every single bad guy in your area.” (This leaked quote appears in a Businessweek company profile from 2011.)

9. Palantir’s “data solution works equally as well in more pedestrian pursuits.”

That’s not all: “this document [which is literally a fucking investor’s prospectus] likely only gives a glimpse into Palantir’s true capability and reach.”

Will Palantir ever recover from this devastating breach?