33 comments

  • tombert an hour ago

    It seems like letting a company like Palantir anywhere near private medical data is a pretty bad idea. I am happy NYC is doing this.

    • Manuel_D 28 minutes ago

      Palantir builds software that customers use to work with their own data. Custody of the data remains with the customer.

      This is like saying a hospital that uses Excel is handing over data to Microsoft.

      • pvtmert 24 minutes ago

        while I understand the meaning here, modern Excel does handover data to Microsoft (via Copilot)...

        • OJFord 12 minutes ago

          And 365 (I'm sure there is an on-premises version, but when not).

        • Manuel_D 11 minutes ago

          Users choose whether to use Copilot, and are free to decline it's use.

      • gullies 25 minutes ago

        I heard that they lock data by using proprietary formats. MSFT does not do that.

      • fsflover 2 minutes ago

        Microsoft can't guarantee data sovereignty – OVHcloud says 'We told you so' (theregister.com)

        76 points by fauigerzigerk 6 months ago | 7 comments

        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45061153

      • foxes 9 minutes ago

        Do you work for palantir?

        • Manuel_D 3 minutes ago

          No, but I am curious why this one company gets some much hate. I can get being politically opposed to the conservative politics of some of its founders, but the vast majority of conservative-founded companies don't get nearly as much criticism. A lot of it is seriously borderline Q-anon levels of conspiratorial talk. Just look at the comment in this thread that Peter Thiel is going to assassinate people with orbital weapons.

      • guywithahat 19 minutes ago

        In some regards I'd almost rather Palantir runs it, since the DoW would force them to implement very strict data isolation features which hospitals could then get for free. I wouldn't imagine Epic Healthcare Systems would be forced to isolate data so aggressively.

        That said I also recognize the moral dilemma and understand why they'd pull out. Frankly I'm surprised they did much work with hospitals at all

        • nradov 14 minutes ago

          Most Epic products aggressively isolate data. The majority of instances are run on-premises, and even those hosted on cloud platforms are single-tenant. They have a good record for data security and privacy; afaik all Epic data breaches were actually caused by infiltration of other customer systems.

  • willis936 an hour ago

    Why are so many entities dealing with Palantir? They are a poison pill for customers.

    • 0x3f 37 minutes ago

      They don't have in-house talent to implement what they want. The same reasons they used to hire Deloitte/EY/KPMG/PwC. Palantir is one rung up from those places when it comes to talent/ability to deliver.

      • senkora 11 minutes ago

        +1. Think of it like a consulting shop that can deliver customized software instead of just slide decks and excel workbooks.

    • paxys 22 minutes ago

      Palantir is a glorified IT consulting company. You tell them "I want a system to manage patient records" and they will dispatch a team of engineers fresh out of college to build it for you while charging top dollar. They are able to get government & military contracts because of lobbying and influence, but generally everything you see about them online is marketing.

      • OJFord 7 minutes ago

        Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting company...

    • nradov 12 minutes ago

      Which customers? Outside of the HN bubble, very few consumers know or care which entities are using Palantir.

  • payphonefiend 32 minutes ago

    Their main product is just consulting and PowerBI but for government. So much hysteria online!

    • danny_codes 14 minutes ago

      Their CEO is a crazy person who seemingly wants to tear down democracy

      • newfriend 6 minutes ago

        Wants to tear down democracy = "doesn't support my chosen political party"

        • danny_codes a minute ago

          Thiel is pro-dictatorship as near as one can tell. Karp probably isn’t sane enough to evaluate

    • llm_nerd 9 minutes ago

      Hysteria? Have you listened to Karp? Palantir pushes some pretty shit-tier BI noise to clueless executives (it's actually uproarious the mythology that has built around that company), and this weird creep talks like they're the masters of the universe.

      Thiel is another incredibly bizarre creep, and he sits as the chairman of the board. Both are very tightly associated with the Trump crime syndicate and the US government, which increasingly is the world's #1 threat, and should be treated as equally dangerous.

  • nottorp 18 minutes ago

    Palantir is an AI firm now? Thought it was a data collection/spyware firm.

    • easterncalculus 12 minutes ago

        spyware
      
      Why is Palantir a spyware company, but Snowflake or Databricks are not? "Spyware" has an actual definition, and there are real companies that sell it, like Pegasus. It's not some catch-all term for what people call "evil".
      • natebc 7 minutes ago

        If they're not a spyware company then they really super duper picked the wrong name. Maybe they were just going for evil, in which case ... well I'm glad NYC hospitals have dropped them and I hope many, many more companies and organizations choose the same path.

  • user3939382 34 minutes ago

    NYC schools just passed some AI guidelines as well. No training on student PII data, no final grades, etc. Unfortunately that's a pinprick for the behemoth.

  • infinitewars 27 minutes ago

    J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel's Palantir is reportedly getting the software contract for control of Golden Dome, an orbital weapon system built by Elon Musk.

    A weapon system capable of targeting any person on Earth controlled by a mass surveillance company. Wonderful.

    • paxys 19 minutes ago

      I'd be concerned if any of the parties involved were halfway competent. This is a grift for taxpayer dollars, nothing more.

  • varispeed 40 minutes ago

    "controversial"

    Everyone knows what's going on, but also everyone is too afraid to stand up for some reason.

    • Manuel_D 30 minutes ago

      What is going on?