Local organizations are raising concerns about the presence of data software giant Palantir in downtown Honolulu.
The company has made national headlines for contracting with U.S. agencies to analyze large amounts of data to — with the help of artificial intelligence and facial recognition — track individuals.
Palantir has been criticized for helping expand mass surveillance by the government. Its clients include the military, police departments, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and intelligence agencies.
A handful of local organizations — the Indivisible Hawaiʻi Statewide Network, ACLU Hawaiʻi, Oʻahu Rapid Response Coalition and Hawaiʻi J20+ — held a protest downtown in front of Palantir’s office Monday to bring more awareness to the public about the company's presence.
Indivisible Hawaiʻi spokesperson Gaye Chan said that the victims of potential mass surveillance are the public as a whole.
“There's evidence that they have empowered ways for (the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) to track down people based on their immigration status, and ICE has used their technology,” Chan said. “But I would say that the immigrant being the scapegoat is just another way of rounding us all up, because they are arresting people who are citizens and green card holders — people who have legal status here.”
Chan added, “This is not only an effort to protect so-called ‘vulnerable’ communities, because I think we've all fallen into this definition of vulnerable communities.”
She said the company’s office is located at the Pacific Guardian Center, and that an employee at the building said that they are usually made aware of new building tenants. That reportedly wasn’t the case for Palantir.
Chan said the company also doesn’t have signage that they’re in the area.
Palantir has been in Hawaiʻi since September of last year, according to Pacific Business News, but the local organizations became more aware of its presence after digging by Punahou School student Zane Dalgamouni.
The 15-year-old Dalgamouni, who is part of Students Demand Action for Gun Sense, said he found out about Palantir’s local presence because of its online job advertisements.
“I found out about the Palantir developments through job listings actually on Indeed and on LinkedIn, and I thought it was crazy that we had never heard about Palantir coming to Hawaiʻi,” he said.
He recently published an article with Aloha State Daily to “bring more attention to this topic and hopefully to get some activism and to get other youth like me out there to bring attention to the issue that government surveillance and government overreach causes, and how it can affect youth for generations to come.”
He reached out to Honolulu City Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, who said he wasn’t aware Palantir was on Oʻahu.
It’s not yet clear if Palantir is working with local companies or agencies.
