
Emails link Palantir and Eric Schmidt's daughter to Cambridge Analytica - SirLJ
https://www.businessinsider.com/emails-peter-thiel-palantir-facebook-cambridge-analytica-2018-3
======
IAmEveryone
I'm feeling uneasy about this particular strand of this scandal...

She was a 23 year old intern, and had already left Cambridge Analytica when
she send that email in 2013. The comment on the forwarded message within CA
was "Ever come across Palantir?" If employees at CA did not even know the
company, how was she supposed to see them as the shadowy big brother company
that is their image today?

The timeline is also important: First, she left CA. She then send that email
in summer 2013. Only some time _after that_ did CA start its program to syphon
Facebook's data.

It seems perfectly plausible that she had just completed a completely benign
internship at a company that presented itself as a sort of next-gen online
advertisement agency with a bend towards academic psychology.

There is also no indication that her father is involved, nor are there any
plausible reasons to believe that he would have any interest in the sort of
seedy activity that later transpired.

The connection to Eric Schmidt seems little more than a curious coincidence.
And while there are obviously many people worse off in life than her, this
attention doesn't seem entirely warranted and possibly quite unnerving.

------
thotaway
Whenever anyone tells you that Facebook and Palantir have nothing to do with
each other, remember that when Facebook vacated its original headquarters on
University Ave, Palantir moved in.

And Peter Thiel indirectly funded Cambridge Analytica through a PAC. And he is
STILL on the board of Facebook! Today!

------
wu-ikkyu
It seems these big tech companies have become de facto arms dealers. After
all, their munitions ("big data") are being loaded into weaponized algorithms
designed by military contractors and deployed against civilian populations.

What an ingenious racket it is to have your target produce the munitions that
you then turn around and use against them.

~~~
nugi
This is the silent deadly undercurrent running unacknowledged through tech.
All tech is eventually weaponized, no matter how noble or benign the
originating concept seemed.

------
useryournoggin
someone working for palantir in a business development role did some business
development. why is this a news story?

