If Palantir is an "analytics firm", I am a helicopter.
lol, you and I mate…
I think it's time for the EU to start denying US companies for security reasons.
That's right. They still want to spy on their citizens, mind you. They just don't want it to look bad, so they should go with someone local.
The Snowden files showed in great details how European countries used US intelligence to spy on EU citizens and then request that data through intel sharing, thus bypassing local and EU law. It was an effective way to get the benefits of spying on your citizens with a plausible deniability that it was the Americans who did it, and that the fact that data was shared is simply a fact of Nato and other deals between EU and US.
Obviously this is not something EU citizens want. If we wanted it, we would issue laws that gave the military and police the right to do it themselves. The only reason that this roundabout way came to exist is that such surveillance would not pass unnoticed by voters.
There are some "more local" alternatives. Sweden for example can (and as rumors goes, do) use neighboring countries like Denmark to spy on Swedish citizens by looking at network traffic that goes over the border. People have argued however that this is a bit worse of an deal since you don't get access to the larger intelligence network that US has, and you also have to trust your neighbors with possible sensitive data.
I don't think it's about how they look if they buy local, it is about accountability and stability.
and while accountability never was the strength of the US, it has became unstable and unreliable in the recent years. It would be stupid to just look away and act like it's not happening.
If they're local, then they're subject to GDPR, which carries massive fines and a private right of action that lets you sue the shit out of anyone who spies on you.
International surveillance, on the other hand, doesn't give two shits about GDPR. Likewise, in the US, they pay private firms and other governments to spy on their own citizens to get around the 4th and 5th Amendments.
Limiting spying to nation-state actors only - and prohibiting cross-border surveillance cooperation - would do an insane amount of good for plugging the data drain.
I recently learned there's a massive gap in collection of fines relating to data handling violations, due to a (not covered) mix of non-collection and going through legal processes. (over the past 6 years: 4+ billion in fines; 20 million collected) Seems like a problem, and further changes might come partly from it.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/01/12/data-protecti...
Fines so massive every company out there (including the linked website) takes the (rational) decision to not comply with it.
What makes you say they're not complying?
Palantir’s entire business model is a GDPR violation, isn’t it?
Palantir isn’t the linked website though?
Government spying is not subject to GDPR, just like you can’t ask the police what data they have on you. Whatever company gives them the tools will be exempt from any form of customer interference.
In which EU country do you not have Freedom of Information equivalent laws?
What kind of FOIA law requires information requests pertaining to active investigations and/or matters of national security to be granted?
Even if you buy Palantir’s claim of unfair framing, this is poor optics: the left defaults to “Palantir = big bad bully,” the right to “Europe = censorship,” and this fight manages to trigger both at once with Palantir looking very clumsy in the middle.
Oh come on there won't be anybody on the right calling this censorship, its one of their biggest donors.
The point is the right won't be able to easily defend them, on this particular issue they've crossed into "enemy" territory.
The realm of PR doesn’t require intellectual consistency. Besides “defending someone” online or in the media does very little to affect case outcomes.
I sure hope Republik didn't write anything about Hulk Hogan ...
This is happening in Switzerland, Hulk Hogan would not have been able to destroy a relatively large media outlet with a single lawsuit there. The main outcome from this is that the Republik will have to print a correction if Palantir wins.
I do hope the Republik gains a few subscribers from this, because they absolutely rule.
Those pesky Swiss with their rights and freedom of press, must be really annoying for poor little thiel, while he just wants to sell surveillance to all sides.
But seriously why should we (valid anywhere in Europe) buy such stuff from US, heck even take it for free. We can go straight to China with same logic, would be cheaper and have about the same amount of backdoors or remote kill switches. US admin publicly wished for subversion and dissolution of EU and making whole Europe a weaker continent, something folks like putin would greatly appreciate.
that sounds good in theory, but in practice almost every country in europe has already fully bought into Palantir tech so you are a bit late with that. Europol has used "Palantir Gotham" for a decade at this point. The idea of western nations national sovereignty is an illusion. Most european journalists wouldn't need to be told not to report badly about Palantir, that's the only thing that makes this story an outlier.
What you say can be true while what I say is valid in the same time. US gov is currently very hostile to whole Europe, way more than say to China and I don't see any option for a change in this in future. This is the approach US population prefers.
If we here use such tech, maybe we need to come up with our own (just FFS don't buy israeli stuff if we want to have any higher moral ground), its not magic just data analytics. And to be frank, I am more than happy if we don't have such capabilities, we have much more serious topics to focus on like russia probably starting another war in Baltics in few years - thats a real mortal enemy, not some left wing dissidents (unless heavily manipulated by russians but then you don't need palantir's solutions).
Probably worth also posting this for context: https://blog.palantir.com/korrektur-wie-das-online-magazin-d...
Calling the company specialising in cyber espionage, data theft and generally human rights violations just an "analytics company"... Call it what it is cowards...
It’s the same Trumpian playbook of attacking publications and using capital to censor, bully, and extract settlements. These companies are evil. But they are evil particularly because a class of ultra wealthy (the Epstein class) are allowed to amass wealth and power.
The deep state is their former name but I like your reference or the Epstein class which is far better at describing how both sides of the political aisle are compromised by the rich and powerful who know no laws or punishment for crimes any normal person would be subjected too.
Shame on Heise for this GDPR-noncompliant trash in their cookie pop-up:
> We offer you the option of rejecting individual data processing. If you have made a selection for all processing purposes, you can save it. Please note that consent to personalised advertising is always required for use without a Pur subscription.
Naah, no, you don't get to gate rejecting consent behind a subscription. Not even if that's your economic reality. The GDPR entitles people in Europe to opt out of surveillance capitalism, and if you can't make money in that environment, you deserve to go bankrupt.
Gimme dat shit for free.
You do you think pay-or-ok is not compliant? Ive not heard of a ruling against it.
https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-43/
> Consent is presumed not to be freely given [..] if the performance of a contract, including the provision of a service, is dependent on the consent despite such consent not being necessary for such performance.
https://noyb.eu/en/pay-or-okay-explained-why-more-and-more-w...
> the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) is working on a binding opinion on 'Pay or Consent', which will determine whether Europeans continue to have a realistic option to protect their privacy online. If the approach is legitimised for Meta, companies across all industries could follow suit - which would mark the end of genuine consent to the use of European's data.