Police use controversial AI tool that looks at people’s sex lives and beliefs

[IwantToRetire]

Senior MPs and privacy campaigners have expressed alarm at the deployment of Palantir’s AI-powered crime-fighting software with access to sensitive personal information

The document, obtained under freedom of information rules, shows how the Palantir system is designed to bring together dozens of existing law enforcement databases into a single computing platform to draw up detailed profiles of suspects, as well as collate information on victims of crime, witnesses, and vulnerable individuals including children.

Co-founded by the US billionaire, and Donald Trump adviser, Peter Thiel, Palantir already has contracts with the NHS and Ministry of Defence. It said its system did not amount to “predictive policing” – an ability to use AI to try to identify individuals at risk of offending – and that its policy was not to offer any such capability.

Full article https://inews.co.uk/news/police-use-controversial-ai-tool-sex-lives-beliefs-3747154

So..."Person of Interest" was quite prescient then?
And I thought it was far fetched at the time. Interestingly, the "Bad guys" in that show were the ones who wanted to use the technology to control populations rather than prevent crime.

Still, I mainly watched it for Jim Caviezel tbh 😂

Researchers Reveal That Anonymized Data Is Easy To Reverse Engineer (gizmodo.com)

So by intersecting a number of publicly available databases it is possible to identify individual members of an anonymized dataset. Estimated accuracy was 99.98%

One of the problems with medical datasets is that the very information that is of importance to researchers is the same stuff that is available in public databases - age, gender, general location etc.

It is possible to do a better job at anonymizing data but all it takes is one mistaken release of information and the internet never forgets

- age, gender, general location etc.

Of course, I meant old school gender here aka biological sex. New age gender might be a good way of disguising yourself

'Oh, this ones a two-spirit-unicorn-moon-child but we're looking for a bi-gender-trans-elf'

They are searching government databases on behalf of the police.

As the article states "Sensitive data, such as details of a person’s sexual activity or philosophical beliefs, can be gathered by police forces for a number reasons, including seeking intelligence on potential offences or offenders. Such data can be gleaned from human sources, including informants or witnesses, as well as social media platforms such as online forums, dating website profiles, and financial records. "

Isn't it all a bit suspicious that a lot in the mainstream media want to remove anonymity on social media and we now have AI scrapers that can build up a picture of someone based off of social media?

For instance any gender critical comments could be inferred by the police (wrongly but they do this) as a particular way of thinking and use that to justify investigations.

@TheCatsTongue @Aaron95, this kind of intelligence gathering's crucial to terrorism prevention. It's also used to good effect by sex abuse task forces and, increasingly, to forecast cyber attacks. As with all such things, though, there will be human error, misjudgement and misdirection. Various UK police forces spent a couple of years building profiles of TERFs because they believed we were a credible threat to democratic society.

As ChatGPT mentioned above, every data model pulling info from public sources will end up with a severely misogynist bias, is likely to be racist and quite possibly pro-Christian. The whole issue's fascinating. I don't know whether I think it will ultimately benefit humanity overall - it could, but the systems are created by, from and for humans. With all our non-beneficial, human qualities.

No surprise that I loved 'Person of Interest', too!

So by intersecting a number of publicly available databases it is possible to identify individual members of an anonymized dataset. Estimated accuracy was 99.98%

I hope that isn't news.

Rather shows up the sanctimonious "Oh, I don't have social media" twats though. Not that they are bright enough to realise.

So the headline is misleading, UK police aren’t actually using it, but Palantir is pushing to be bought and used by UK police?

Well I’m very pleased the Quebec and Ontario police used social media access to find the recently missing THREE year old.
Her mother 1) researched children’s URNS days before and 2) posted a threatening video regarding child behavior.
She abandoned her child along a highway
Thanks to social media posts the day before filing her daughter missing. The police deployed drones and heat sensors the child was found many many miles in the opposite direction.

Using it as part of an active investigation is totally different to storing details about someone from SM posts for no specific reason.

This was meant more as joke about how hopelessly incompetent many databases created by quite central organisations are. eg the DVLA (may now have been improved).

But in terms of the NHS there is a good arguement that to practioners within the NHS have access that gives a full picture of any conditions etc..

Particularly is say I was unconcious and couldn't tell them what I know (or more likely remember). Its so random how each hospital clinic works, and relies of patients accurately describing conditions.

I have no issue with police using what is available for a specific crime that has occurred.

For the purposes of this chat, I'm not clear what a public database would be. Could anyone give an example, please? @SerendipityJane I think this is your area, maybe you can give examples please?

I've always just assumed that anonymized data can be traced but now I'm curious what constitutes a public database.

i've always assumed that any information put on social media is available to all.

I doubt they are storing details for no specific reason. generally if any of your SM information is stored it’s because they’ve needed it for a previous investigation- so either held for evidence or for use in cases such as regular missing children where it’s assisted in finding them.

police can only see what you’ve made public anyway. They don’t have access to anything private.

There was a AI tool doing the rounds on Reddit a few months ago, where it summarised your personality, your outlook on life and your interests based on your posting history. It was eerily accurate.

There is no way I would want anything like that attached to my real name on social media.

Ha yes, I've been thinking of that series. Though I always wondered how the CCTV was clear enough to actually identify anyone, and also how did Fusco and Carter manage to sneak out from normal police work for such long stretches, without their bosses complaining?