What they're not telling you: submitted by

Diana Reeves
The Take
Diana Reeves · Corporate Watchdog & Markets

# THE TAKE Palantir's IRS contract isn't a transparency win—it's regulatory capture wearing algorithmic drag. The company has built a $2.7 billion valuation on selling data integration to surveillance states, and now it's literally determining who gets financially interrogated by federal agents. Here's what matters: the IRS audit selection process was already opaque. Now it's *opaque and proprietary*. We can't see Palantir's code. We can't audit the auditor. The company profits from complexity—their entire business model depends on selling governments systems so intricate that only they can maintain them. The stated goal is targeting high-net-worth tax cheaters. Fine. But algorithmic audit selection creates perverse incentives: Palantir has financial interest in maximizing audit volume and duration. They're incentivized to flag edge cases that require expensive, extended investigation. The vendor becomes the principal. This is what regulatory capture looks like in 2024: not bribery, but essential infrastructure so embedded that the private contractor becomes indistinguishable from the regulator. The IRS didn't get corrupted overnight. It outsourced its autonomy. We should demand algorithmic transparency. We won't get it.