Mike Steinberger

Overview

Mike Steinberger is the reporter/explainer in Love in the time of Palantir, where he distinguishes Palantir’s stated software role from the public fear that it personally holds everyone’s data.

Current Profile

Steinberger functions as the episode’s interpretive source on Palantir. His core distinction is that Palantir does not own, buy, or sell data, but provides software that helps customers integrate and use their own data. He also supplies the civil-liberties warning: once software makes separate data sources easy to enrich, search, and act on, customer control rather than vendor ownership becomes the central risk.

Key Characteristics

• Reporter/explainer focused on separating Palantir’s data ownership claims from its operational power.
• Source for the episode’s business-use example around Airbus and A350 production visibility.
• Source for the post-9/11 origin account linking Palantir to CIA counterterrorism data integration.
• Source for the ICE concern that software can make many datasets faster to search and operationalize.
• Boundary-setting voice who keeps Palantir’s vendor role distinct from customer decisions.

Evidence

• Data-ownership distinction - Love in the time of Palantir has Steinberger say Palantir does not own, buy, or sell data.
• Business example - Love in the time of Palantir uses his Airbus account to show Palantir software creating production-line visibility and reducing glitch-resolution time.
• Government origin - Love in the time of Palantir has him describe Palantir’s post-9/11 pitch to the CIA and its 2005 CIA contract.
• ICE warning - Love in the time of Palantir attributes the claim that Palantir appears to be the technological backbone for a large ICE surveillance apparatus to Steinberger.

Qualifications

The episode does not make Steinberger a neutral final authority on every Palantir contract. Palantir declined to be interviewed, and the ICE claims remain source-scoped to the episode’s reporting and Steinberger’s interpretation.

What Changed

• Initial profile adds Steinberger as the source’s Palantir explainer and civil-liberties interpreter.

Relationships

• Palantir - company Steinberger explains and critiques.
• Airbus - industrial example used in his Palantir account.
• CIA / Central Intelligence Agency / 中情局 - post-9/11 customer/origin context he describes.
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - agency tied to his ICE surveillance warning.
• Data Operationalization - concept captured by his data-ownership versus data-use distinction.