this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
270 points (98.9% liked)

Technology

82745 readers
2946 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Hacker News.

Experts say that claims UK data remains under government ownership miss the point that the company has the capability to build its own detailed picture of the British population, and even infer state secrets.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] SaraTonin@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

The point is that at every turn the UK government and politicians in general have demonstrated an absolute lack of understanding of technology

I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit surprised if they genuinely didn’t understand the threat that Thiel poses

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

That's the story that gets told. But in an economy in which technology is increasingly designed to be hostile to the public, this appears to be a case of them doing exactly what they intended.

I think there's a real possibility that Palantir's capacities are heavily overstated. Historically, the real hazard presented by these panopticons is False Positives. Hobbling your nation's ability to do any kind of productive enterprise because you've surrounded yourself with the illusion of threatening behavior.

But even in this scenario, you're still left with the evil/stupid conundrum. If your MPs are just getting paid off to make excuses, insisting that they lack understanding misses the point. They vote the same way even if they do.

[–] SaraTonin@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

I’m not insisting on anything, I’m just saying that Hanlon’s Razor is always worth bearing in mind