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nashville_brook

(20,958 posts)
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 11:28 AM Jun 2013

CIA gave $5 BILLION to tech startup Palantir...their product? something called PRISM (coincidence?)

(for clarity, I'm not asking if this is a coincidence...Business Insider is.)


http://www.businessinsider.com/prism-is-also-the-name-of-a-product-from-palantir-a-5-billion-tech-startup-funded-by-the-cia-2013-6


PRISM Is Also The Name Of A Product From Palantir, A $5 Billion Tech Startup Funded By The CIA

(snip)

To be able to do that ("watch your ideas form as you type&quot , the NSA would need some seriously impressive "big data" tools to analyze the terabytes of messages, videos, images, and metadata streaming through. One company that would be able to provide such tools is Silicon Valley tech firm called Palantir.

Not a lot is known about Palantir, a private company that does not say much about who it works with.
On its company website, Palantir says it offers "a suite of software applications for integrating, visualizing and analyzing the world's information. On another part of its Website, buried deep it in its "DevZone" area for developers, Palantir describes on of those products as "a software component that lets you quickly integrate external databases into Palantir."


It's called Prism.
Here's the full description:

"Prism is a software component that lets you quickly integrate external databases into Palantir. Specifically, it lets you build high-performance Data Engine based providers without writing any code. Instead, you define simple configuration files and then Palantir automatically constructs the data provider and database code for you. This ensures that all data access goes through well tested, high-performance code paths. Also, you can iterate more quickly because you can modify and reload Prism-based data providers without restarting the server."



Can we say for sure that Palantir's product, Prism, is the big data engine behind the NSA's secret tool PRISM?
No, we cannot. A call into Palantir has not been returned. As secretive as Palantir is, we doubt anyone we could reach would confirm much for us, anyway.

But it would certainly be a coincidence if there were a big data NSA program was named PRISM and a Palantir product was named Prism and they were not the same.


screen shot from Palantir website on their PRISM product:




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/prism-is-also-the-name-of-a-product-from-palantir-a-5-billion-tech-startup-funded-by-the-cia-2013-6#ixzz2VXnWk3Bl
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CIA gave $5 BILLION to tech startup Palantir...their product? something called PRISM (coincidence?) (Original Post) nashville_brook Jun 2013 OP
As a 36-year tech pro I can say with certainty that the Prism "full description" is gobbldygook. Scuba Jun 2013 #1
as a marketing professional...i wholeheartedly agree nashville_brook Jun 2013 #2
... and we also know from longtime experience that front companies 'advertise' as 'normal' ones ... Myrina Jun 2013 #3
public-private-partnerships hide a plethora of evil...we call it "outsourcing" nashville_brook Jun 2013 #4
Wasn't this the plot of that movie Eagle Eye? Initech Jun 2013 #5
actually reminds me of the TV series Rubicon nashville_brook Jun 2013 #6
CIA gave money to a $5 billion tech startup. n/t prayin4rain Jun 2013 #7
 

Scuba

(53,475 posts)
1. As a 36-year tech pro I can say with certainty that the Prism "full description" is gobbldygook.
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 11:31 AM
Jun 2013

That describes Google, dBase, Lotus 1-2-3 and any other 3rd generation or beyond application that can manipulate data.

At least it was only $5 billion.

Myrina

(12,296 posts)
3. ... and we also know from longtime experience that front companies 'advertise' as 'normal' ones ...
Fri Jun 7, 2013, 11:40 AM
Jun 2013

.... they don't advertise the extra-special-creepy shit they do for "special clients" under the table.

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