Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and former executive Wendy Anderson have hit back against a NY Times report warning that the company is laying the groundwork for government surveillance on steroids through a massive database that would coordinate the private information of US citizens across federal agencies.
“Palantir’s not a “database”; it’s a platform created by 1000s of the most talented and patriotic Americans to partner with our DoD to stop attacks and defeat bad guys, while protecting liberty & privacy,” Lonsdale posted on X in response to the account “Retard Finder,” that said “The Palantir database idea is retarded.”
“There are hundreds of similar types of software and efforts in the USA throughout the west; what’s unique about Palantir is that it’s BY FAR the best at stopping bad guys,” Lonsdale continued.
When asked by a self-described Palantir shareholder whether he’d “personally be comfortable with your personal data being stored in this database if AOC or Ilhan Omar were President,” Lonsdale replied:
“given the government does operate on sensitive data: I 100% prefer PLTR to be there if sketchy people are in charge, as it has full access rules and audit trails; others don’t.”
Hellbound and Down 