User manual for Palantir Gotham software, obtained via a FOIA request, shows the amount of information law enforcement can quickly access about any individual
Motherboard obtained a Palantir user manual through a public records request, and it gives unprecedented insight into how the company logs and tracks individuals. Tweets: @carolineha_ , @woganmay , @manan , @thestuffofmemes , @vice , @vice , @carolineha_ , @josephfcox , and @motherboard Tweets: Caroline Haskins / @carolineha_ : SCOOP (1/2): I obtained a Palantir user manual, designed to be used by cops, through a public record request. The guide shows—in detail we've never seen before—how the Palantir's Gotham software tracks, logs, and surveils people. https://www.vice.com/... Wogan / @woganmay : I'm not surprised or disappointed that law enforcement has tools like this. I'm far more disappointed that the UIs are indistinguishable from Microsoft Access. If you're gonna build a hyper-connected surveillance state, at least get some Hollywood FX on it. https://twitter.com/... @manan : 1. ugh. Bad UI and clunky looking software 2. this is dependent on access to private companies' data. Heavy reliance on payment card data, other govt. DBs 3. Don't see any mention of mapping any of this to mobile phone info. Maybe @PalantirTech has it on its prod roadmap https://twitter.com/... Laurie Charles / @thestuffofmemes : Amazed that a company named after Tolkien's magic telephone for tyrants and evil wizards turns out to be bad. https://twitter.com/... @vice : The software can map out family members and business associates of a suspect, and theoretically, find the above information about them, too. http://bit.ly/2SgyBur @vice : With a name, police can find: • A person's email address • Phone numbers • Current and previous addresses • Bank accounts • Social security number(s) • Business relationships • Family relationships • Height, weight, and eye color. http://bit.ly/2SgyBur Caroline Haskins / @carolineha_ : SCOOP (2/2): 300 cities had access to Palantir through company contracts with Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, which is run by the DHS. The NCRIC gives info to police depts in 14 counties home to almost 8 million people. This is huge. https://www.vice.com/... Joseph Cox / @josephfcox : New: Palantir user manual obtained by Motherboard lays out exactly what one of the company's products is capable of. Overview of a wealth of data on a subject easily. https://www.vice.com/... pic.twitter.com/S56iNKokhL @motherboard : The Palantir user guide shows that police can start with almost no information about a person of interest and instantly know extremely intimate details about their lives. https://bit.ly/2JwfNob
Context & Ripple Effects
Two years after Wired reported how Palantir built an opaque surveillance network from police department data while locking in clients, Motherboard has obtained something no reporter had before: the actual Gotham user manual written for cops, pulled via a public records request. The document turns an abstraction — 'Palantir tracks people' — into a concrete picture of what an officer at, say, the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, with access spanning roughly 300 cities and 14 counties, can pull up about any individual.
The significance is that the manual documents the product's own logging and tracking behavior in detail Palantir never published, arriving amid long-standing complaints about the company's transparency that have shadowed it from its police contracts to its government work abroad.
First-order effects
- Law enforcement users across NCRIC's footprint can now be audited against their own documentation: the manual shows exactly how quickly officers can access intimate personal data about any individual, giving journalists and oversight bodies a checklist rather than a rumor.
- Palantir faces its first product-level exposure — not a contract dispute but a technical document showing how Gotham logs and surveils people, which the company cannot reclassify as speculation.
Second-order effects
- Other agencies holding Palantir contracts come under pressure to release equivalent documentation, since the manual sets a precedent that 'the vendor's software behavior' is a legitimate public-records target.
- Rival govtech vendors must now treat operational transparency as a competitive variable: a client city can point to the Gotham manual when demanding to know what any surveillance platform does with its data.
Third-order effects
- FOIA emerges as the de facto regulator for proprietary government software — the same mechanism later surfaced UK Ministry of Justice talks about scoring prisoners' reoffending risk, suggesting leaked or requested documents will keep defining the terms of debate faster than formal oversight can.
- If the pattern holds, Palantir's expansion into new domains runs into jurisdiction-specific walls: European investigators questioned whether its public-agency work can operate under EU law at all (the COVID-era Guardian investigation), meaning the accountability gap exposed by the manual gets adjudicated market by market rather than by one global rule.
The trend: Government surveillance software is being held accountable less by procurement rules than by documents pried loose after deployment, making post-hoc disclosure the main check on platforms like Gotham.