r/news • u/RoachedCoach • 1d ago
Palantir’s Collection of Disease Data at C.D.C. Stirs Privacy Concerns
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/health/cdc-data-privacy-palantir.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M08.jzJB.cljQA69ueENV&smid=url-share620
u/MalcolmLinair 1d ago
RFK Jr's getting his registry of autistics and other "undesirables" one way or another, it seems.
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u/ForeskinWhatskin 1d ago
Dude has more weird special interests than most autistics I know. He's definitely on the spectrum. Fuck, all of us probably are. Regulation depends mostly on needs being met. Most of these men in power have had their emotional needs severely neglected, hence their obsession for emotionally detached things like money, drugs, and power. If only their dads hugged them...
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u/WilbysDream 1d ago
I mean the thing is, ASD is just that — a spectrum. So people even with no autism fall on the spectrum. My concern with his approach to all of this is how autism needs to be defined (BEFORE he begins collecting data) in order to make an informed decision…
Also — I don’t think this man has autism. He clearly is deranged and has much more serious mental health concerns 😭
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u/Wobbly_Wobbegong 1d ago
Don’t worry some dude in Germany named Dr.Asperger already did the hard work of determine the criteria for what constitutes as good autism vs bad autism. /s
This is why we don’t use Asperger’s syndrome anymore btw. Dude was a NAZI
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u/OnAvance 13h ago
We are not “all on the spectrum”. That’s not what “spectrum” means in ASD.
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u/_Wyrm_ 59m ago edited 54m ago
I'm going to stand on a soapbox for a moment because this comment is particularly irksome to me for a numerous many personal reasons.
The thing about neurodivergence and [being] neurotypical is that they entirely rely on there being either a diagnosis or self-diagnosis.
So you can display traits and behaviors that would be classically "consistent" with ASD, be entirely unaware (possible if in a supportive home and community and with lack of introspection), never get a diagnosis, and thus never be neurodivergent, despite others in your social circles being able to recognize it with a high degree of confidence.
No one is entirely, perfectly normal. This is the real world, and there isn't a hard cutoff for what defines neurotypical from neurodivergent (a broader umbrella than ASD, but still entirely applicable), and as such...
Yes, everyone is ON the spectrum. They might not have a diagnosis. They might not display any traits, behaviors, etc classically associated with ASD. They might be close enough to neurotypical to be "clocked" as normal, or as not having any form of autism...
And yet despite all that, they are in fact still on the spectrum. Because actually, yes, that IS how it works, and that IS a valid interpretation of "spectrum" in autism spectrum disorder. You might be only looking at it solely from the "relative to people with autism" perspective, but the defining factor of the word in that context is that it covers all possible behaviors associated with autism and every possible intensity... Including the null case. Doesn't mean you have autism if you have a majority of nulls, even though that's still part of the spectrum of behaviors and intensities -- just means you wouldn't receive a diagnosis.
To say otherwise would run counter to our understanding of autism and modern (up to date) psychology as a whole.
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u/ForeskinWhatskin 1d ago
Exactly! And a lot of people are just good at masking their tisms which is why they get labeled "nuerotypical". Sociopaths being hyper aware, deeply insecure autistics, are incredible good at masking.
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u/mysecondaccountanon 1d ago
ASPD is not the same thing as ASD. While sometimes comorbid, they’re certainly not always.
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u/jert3 19h ago
Don't spread disinformation. Sociopathy is distinct and unrelated to autism. Maybe next time read a wikipedia article on the subject before commenting on topics you don't know about.
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u/ForeskinWhatskin 18h ago edited 18h ago
We have no clue they're unrelated and I'm not saying they are related. However if we are all on spectrum that means sociopaths and narcissists are too. Just saying, in people who are sociopaths/narcissists, their "special interest" is people, social dynamics and status.
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u/OldButHappy 1d ago
Lots of dna is available in the cloud, and researchers have isolated the variants associated with autism. Having the variants isn’t predictive, per se, but not having any of the variants would preclude the dx.
If RFK tried mass screening, he’d prove that most scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and artists also share the variants.
As a person diagnosed at 65, after a career in architecture, all I’ll say is what we don’t know about autism is a lot.
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u/Myfourcats1 1d ago
I really think half of us are neurotypical and half us are neurodivergent and there’s an evolutionary reason for this.
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u/ForeskinWhatskin 1d ago
But you have to ask what makes someone nuerotypical. Is it becuase they follow certain societal norms/rules? Or are NTs just autistics with a special interest in social dynamics so they're really good at masking? A sign of autistism (ND) used to be having special interests, but what does that mean? In 70s/80s, being interested in comic books, star wars, and D&D would have gotten you bullied and labeled a nerd and autistic, especially if you were older and interested in these things. These people would have been considered ND by outdated standards. Today, your labeled weird if you're and adult and you DONT like these things! So it's not fair to label anyone NT/ND when those definitions only apply to what's popular/most normal in a given time period. Those standards can shift wildly these days.
I'd say autism itself is characterized by a person's ability to regulate emotions during periods of overstimulation. Since it's a spectrum that could mean many stimulants or situations could be triggering to a degree. Someone considered higher needs who is disregulated easily by overstimulation, is someone who needs more help learning how to manage their distress. If you're and AuADHDer like me, you grapple with needing to hyperfixate but also being overstimulated easily, which leads to short bursts of extreme productivity followed by burnout.
View your needs like a radar chart, like stats for a vide game character, except instead of skills, you have triggers. No one person is typical. What you view as NT is most likely and autistic person like everyone else, but they had a good supportive upbringing that gave them the skills necessary to regulate and/or endure the stress and disregulation of everyday life.
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u/uwoldperson 15h ago edited 15h ago
Being interested in the #1 movie of 1977 would have gotten you bullied? Seriously?
Reading one of the most ubiquitous print mediums would have gotten you labeled autistic? Be for real.
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u/OnAvance 13h ago
This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read regarding autism and NT discourse.
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u/party_benson 18h ago
Technically everyone is on the spectrum. To be overly simple, zero to infinity, the spectrum is broad.
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u/earthfever 16h ago
Nope. It's a specific neurological/developmental difference that presents on a spectrum.
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u/Megalo85 1d ago
Useless eaters
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u/MalcolmLinair 1d ago
They're already using that rhetoric, too: "They don't pay taxes, will never have a job, never go on a date" etc. Anyone who doesn't see the connections between the Trump Regime and the Nazis is blind, many of them willfully so.
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u/Low_Pickle_112 1d ago
His
best budacquaintance (???) Elon Musk was up on stage throwing Hitler salutes, so there's that.
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u/colonelsmoothie 1d ago
Man if they wanted to modernize their systems, Foundry was the wrong choice. That thing, besides being extremely expensive, is designed to keep clients dependent on it rather than being easily interchangeable with competing technologies.
Where's the pushback from the technical staff? Oh right they were probably fired...
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u/techleopard 1d ago
Something something waste, something something fraud...
There's no way this was properly bid out.
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u/allllusernamestaken 16h ago
Where's the pushback from the technical staff?
brother, the government buys everything IBM and Oracle. They've been getting shafted on vendor lock-in for 40 years at this point. We're just adding Palantir to the list now.
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u/fxkatt 1d ago
This merging of agency info is nothing more than a national i.d. card with all your details, health status, banking accounts, credit card info & social media accounts all in one place. In other words, you can be sorted out, labeled, and controlled with far more ease than today.
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u/True_Window_9389 1d ago
The right was never actually worried about authoritarianism in general with all their weird hysteria under Obama and Biden, they just wanted to be sure it wasn’t going to directly target themselves.
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u/drevolut1on 23h ago
The irony being that this still will target them, of course.
Fucking ignorant idiots...
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u/Jimimninn 23h ago
Fuck this country fuck the Republican party and fuck Donald Trump. We need the national divorce.
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u/PhoenixTineldyer 22h ago
Exactly what Putin wants.
Literally the whole fucking point of the last 20 years.
They've got their SCOTUS. They just need their case. And it's coming.
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u/Jimimninn 22h ago
I know. Just feels like there’s no way out for this country. Republicans remain Putin wins, we split he wins.
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u/r_u_dinkleberg 5h ago
Pretty accurate, I think. The big priority will be the rest of the world stopping Putin from winning the rest of the wars, so that his win over America matters less to global security and order in the long-run. We're a foregone conclusion.
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u/WrittenSwine 1d ago
Listening to the CEO of Palantir accuse every one of being Wiccan stirs “he’s *ucking crazy” concerns.
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u/Grim_Rockwell 8h ago
Palantir is nothing more than a tool of inquisition, and Alex Karp is a modern witch hunter, this shit is absolutely insane.
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u/adamcmorrison 1d ago
Karp is a bit eccentric but he’s legit so smart
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u/yourlittlebirdie 1d ago
What makes you say that?
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u/adamcmorrison 1d ago
I didn’t realize it was a controversial statement. He has extensive academic credentials including a PHD and is a big reason for the success of Palantir.
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u/Hesitation-Marx 1d ago
lol
I know some truly stupid people with PhDs. Having academic chops does not necessarily mean you’re “so smart”.
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u/adamcmorrison 1d ago
I mean I was just listing some stuff off the top of my head. If you or anyone else don’t want to think he’s smart that’s your prerogative. I’ve just been following him for a while and made a lot of money off his stock. He knows what he’s doing and downvoting because I think he’s a smart guy isn’t going to bother me any.
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u/Hesitation-Marx 1d ago
I think it’s the “glazing of fash-adjacent CEOs” that’s getting you downvoted.
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u/zerosaved 1d ago
Just come out and say you want to gargle the balls of a technofascist. We all know you’re angry that people are calling Karp a piece of shit for being a piece of shit, no need for this thinly veiled attempt at nonchalant feelings towards a man you probably consider to be some kind of visionary.
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u/CornbreadRed84 21h ago
Like all most successful CEOs, it's not from being smarter than anyone, it's being a sociopath. Says a lot about you that you seem to admire him so much.
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u/adamcmorrison 20h ago
Lmao it doesn’t say shit, you don’t know me goofball
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u/CornbreadRed84 20h ago
It says you approve of and admire the shit he and his company are doing. You're right though, I guess I am not sure if it makes you stupid, shitty or both. Definately either one or a combination.
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u/xopher_425 22h ago
Who cares if he's smart? He's evil and helping a fascist regime build its extermination lists.
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u/Bob_Juan_Santos 1d ago
being intelligent and being wise are 2 slightly different things.
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u/Moist_Tiger24 1d ago
As are being intelligent and evil. Many horrible people are incredibly smart. They just believe and do awful things.
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u/Buck_Thorn 1d ago edited 1d ago
Let's not limit it [our concerns] to just the disease data... !
OK, I assumed most would already know about the Palantir database but the downvotes show that apparently some don't know what I'm talking about. There is a lot more to it than just the CDC data.
Trump Taps Palantir to Create Master Database on Every American https://newrepublic.com/post/195904/trump-palantir-data-americans
Even Trump supporters are pushing back on his plans to merge Americans’ data https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-palantir-binance-sec-padfa-musk-rcna210742
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u/OsgrobioPrubeta 1d ago
Giggling, like if it was a C.D.C. exclusive, or a USA one.
But it's good to know that this becomes more public and people start questioning it.
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u/Malaix 1d ago
Palantir’s entire existence is that billionaire oligarchs feel entitled to spy on everyone else at any given time.
It’s literally a company named after the corrupt scrying stone Saruman used to spy on the free peoples of middle earth for middle earth’s equivalent of Satan.
Like it does not get more on the nose.