The fight to find missing children and eliminate sexual exploitation has come to Silicon Valley.
Through its new office in downtown Palo Alto, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children plans to partner with area tech companies to build security features into new products.
John Ryan, chief executive officer of the nonprofit organization, welcomed the chance to be proactive at an open house Thursday night.
“We’ve enjoyed some strong partnerships with members of the tech community, like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Palantir. We’re fortunate that many of them take the time and effort to visit us in Alexandria, Va., outside of Washington, D.C., but there’s no substitute for being literally in the same community where they’re based and where they’re hatching all their new ideas,” Ryan said in an interview on the front porch of the office at 510 Waverley St.
“We’re now in a position to brainstorm with them, to think forward rather than be reactive in this arena.”
An office in downtown Palo Alto isn’t something the 29-year-old center could have afforded on its own, Ryan said. The space was donated by Palantir Technologies Inc., which previously created software to help the nonprofit organization make the most of the databases it uses to find missing children.
“There is a lot of technology here,” said Michael Lopp, Palantir’s director of engineering. “The question is how can that technology help in ways that even the people who are building it can’t think of?”
Larry Magid, a columnist for this newspaper and a member of the center’s board of directors, said it’s not uncommon for tech companies to put out a product and address concerns after the fact. Like Ryan, he sees the new office as a chance to change the order of things.
“If you were building a car, imagine if you got your first cars on the road and then later you thought about brakes, airbags and seatbelts. That would never happen,” Magid said. “But that’s how it works in technology. People launch products, put them out there, then they think about safety, privacy and security.”
City officials also welcomed the arrival of the center. Mayor Greg Scharff helped cut a ceremonial ribbon Thursday, but the office has been open since August, spokeswoman Stacy Garrett said.
“It’s a big deal,” Scharff said. “One of the concerns is that we’ve been losing nonprofits and nonprofits have been concerned about rising office space rents. And I’ve really got to hand it to Palantir.”
Lt. Zach Perron of the Palo Alto Police Department said detectives with the sex crimes unit plan to forge strong ties with the two analysts and development officer who are staffing the office.
“It’s that sort of networking and relationship building that is going to benefit our agency if, God forbid, we ever have a missing or abducted child,” Perron said. “To have them in our backyard is a tremendous asset.”
Email Jason Green at jgreen@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/jgreendailynews.