CT No.259: Mass audience surveillance: Palantir + USA Today Co.

Previously in The Content Technologist:Traffic for traffic's sake is a bad way to make money (2019). Minneapolis goes through it once (2020). Privacy is critical to remember when collecting audience data (2021). Minneapolis goes through it again (2026). We get angry. We cope. Our strong journalism and civically minded culture helps us orient and survive. At the Online News Association conference, news executives talk about AI (2026).The frightening partnership of USA Today and PalantirJournalists reporting on the massively successful analytics company Palantir tend to stick to its government contracts, which are frighteningly broad and opaque to the average American. Described this week in The Verge as "giant, data-sucking squid," Palantir's rapid expansion into American law enforcement and government operations has been cause for alarm.What flies relatively under the radar is Palantir's growth into American private industry. While military contracts are the focus of most news…