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PRISM and Palantir?

News outlets today are abuzz about the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) TOP SECRET PRISM program that allegedly had direct access to Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, and other big internet companies. The story goes that it’s sweeping up a ton of data for national security purposes. People are very concerned not only about the broad nature of…

Big Brother and Misplaced Fear

Today, Don Hodges wrote an article in The Telegraph calling for more Big Brother, not less. This article was written in response to the UK Government’s plan to increase surveillance of e-mail, telephone calls, and internet traffic. Hodges first writes: My idea of the perfect society is one where every street corner has a CCTV…

What if…and Palantir, the CIA and FBI’s Threat-Tracking Software

Yesterday, Boing Boing commented on a Bloomberg Businessweek article describing Palantir, a threat-tracking software. Originally developed as a way to detect criminals using PayPal for illicit purposes, Palantir tracks seemingly innocuous data points to determine whether a terrorist plot is in the works. More importantly, it has the ability to raise alarms before the attack…