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Palantir being the exception that proves the rule.

Doubt they're the only one. For all the talk of noble ideals in SV the only real principle is money.

Facebook and others are, at the very least, aware of the purpose behind those various "Quizzes" that are posted using their advertising platforms.

Edit: A reference: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/the-secret-agenda...

Pedantic aside: This isn't the right way to use this phrase. The exception that proves the rule is the data point that demonstrates that it makes sense to call it a rule and not just something which is always true.

'Dogs bark' is proven a rule by cats meowing, not by a dog that doesn't bark

I don't understand how cats meowing proves anything about dogs. But see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule...

The original sense is "No parking on sundays" proves that parking is allowed on other days.

The colloquial sense is that if something is a surprising, it shows that its opposite was a useful rule of thumb, or at least one you'd established in your head. (E.g. if you are surprised by a dog that doesn't bark, this surprise is meaningful and says something about what you think about dogs and barking.)

If palantir is shocking as a SV company, this says something interesting about what you think about SV companies.

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