Security News > 2020 > September > Palantir Listing May Shine Light on Secretive Big Data Firm
Perhaps the most secretive firm to emerge from Silicon Valley, Palantir Technologies is set for a stock market debut this month that may shed light on the Big Data firm specializing in law enforcement and national security.
Palantir is a major player in "Predictive policing," a technology which critics say can amplify bias in law enforcement.
A 2017 research paper by University of Texas sociologist Sarah Brayne found the Palantir platform can connect seemingly unrelated bits of data for investigators, but can also lead to "a proliferation of data from police" collected without a warrant.
Chris Hoofnagle, faculty director of the Center for Law & Technology at the University of California at Berkeley, said Palantir may be a lightning rod for critics because of Thiel's politics and because it operates differently from its tech rivals.
"Palantir does not have data. Palantir is software, like the Office suite," Hoofnagle said.