Press release: 10 questions to Palantir from privacy organisations

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

Today Privacy International, Big Brother Watch, medConfidential, Foxglove, and Open Rights Group have sent Palantir 10 questions about their work with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) during the Covid-19 public health crisis and have requested for the contract to be disclosed.

On its website Palantir says that the company has a “culture of open and critical discussion around the implications of [their] technology” but the company have so far provided little meaningful insight about their current work with the NHS.

We are primarily interested in if and how Palantir will retain and use the data analysis gleaned from this work with the NHS. We are interested in whether the company will use this analysis to strengthen their own proprietary systems.

The questions have been sent to the company’s Palantir Council of Advisors on Privacy and Civil Liberties.

Privacy International said:

“As Palantir says, in the spirit of “open and critical discussion” we have asked them for key details about their current work with the NHS. It would be misleading and cynical for Palantir to offer services to the NHS without being fully transparent about how the company may benefit from the data analysis gleaned in this work, which they can then go on to profit from and strengthen their proprietary systems.”

Silkie Carlo, Director of Big Brother Watch said:

"It is unacceptable that a large-scale project involving patient data is being pursued with Palantir in absence of stakeholder engagement or public transparency. Palantir and NHSX must be fully open and transparent about the ‘Covid-19 datastore’, the nature of contracts, the use of patient data, the confidentiality of 111 calls, and make details of any predictive analytics and anonymisation techniques available for public audit at the soonest possibility."

Cori Crider, Director of Foxglove said:

"Besides our amazing doctors and nurses, patient data are the crown jewels of the NHS. If Palantir is to be trusted with private health data on millions of Britons, the public has a right to see the terms of the deal."

Open Rights Groups said:

“Rushing through contracts with private companies with dubious records and bad business practices is an obvious risk during this pandemic. Palantir have many questions to answer, but so do our politicians and the NHS, if we are not to be left with a legacy of bad deals and vendor lock-in."

If your organisation is interested in signing on please reach out to press [at] privacyinternational [dot] com.