Palantir and the threats to our rights
Palantir’s increasing penetration a real concern
March 2026
During a presentation on increasing authoritarianism at the Exeter conference, the firm Palantir was mentioned and its potential, and part in, the worrying trend of authoritarianism on both sides of the Atlantic. The first question is what does the firm do? This is normally a straightforward enough question to answer by looking at the firm’s website and other sources. But in this case there seem to be doubts even from people who work there.
Essentially they handle information and data – colossal amounts of it. They are able to meld a wide range of data sets to provide answers to customers who include commercial firms, the military and a variety of government agencies. One of their senior employees chillingly said ‘we help with killing people and saving lives’. In this essay we want to explain why we should be concerned about the firm and its likely effects on our rights and freedoms. Information is power. As we are seeing in the current wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and Iran, information is crucial to the successful targeting of munitions and to military operations generally.
As the quote above illustrates, information is not neutral. It can be used to analyse the masses of information held by the NHS to make improvements in clinical outcomes and in improving efficiency. It has been used to help in crime detection by matching large and disparate quantities of information on international criminal networks. But it has been used by ICE in its activities in the US which have drawn a lot of criticism. The essential point therefore is being able effectively to control the data and the companies like Palantir who have it. It is this which is the root of concerns.
Concerns
1. The first concern is that it is a profit based corporation. Its prime focus is on returns to shareholders and making a profit. There is no crime in that but when it comes to data and millions of files of information about individuals, moral issues and matters of security and confidentiality are crucially important. In common with all corporations these days, it has a series of reassuring policy statements about human rights for example. History doesn’t support these statements. When it is profit v. morals, which will win out?
2. The lack of security of the data it collects. In the case of the NHS, the government is desperate to secure savings and no doubt Palantir will offer them which could be genuine enough. The company is American based and as we have experienced with other tech giants, transparency and attention to the welfare of the people using their platforms is very low down on their list of concerns. Will the desire to save money outweigh the security of the data?
3. The government has shown itself to be inept in a wide variety of IT catastrophes and have chosen to outsource to Palantir because they have a system that works. In doing so, they will lose control to a corporation outside its jurisdiction. Like several other ‘tech bros’ its owner, Peter Thiel, has been happy enough to cosy up to President Trump. Thiel in his writings is keen on monopolies which is also a worry when we are talking about a public organisation like the NHS.
4. The organisations links to the military and help offered to the IDF. It developed a technology called Maven which dramatically speeds up what is termed the ‘kill chain’ and has been used in Gaza and Iran. It identifies, using AI technology, where a target is likely to be and enables rapid attacks and assassinations to take place. Palantir is not involved in the decision to allow killing of 15 or more innocent individuals by the IDF for one Hamas fighter but is nevertheless supplying the IT to enable it to take place.
No scruples
It all adds up to a fundamental concern about being associated with such a firm. It appears to have no scruples in terms of the uses put by its systems and technology. We have a government which has shown itself to be more and more authoritarian, keen to allow an American company over which it has almost no legal controls, access to a vast range of data about individuals.
It comes down to the sovereignty of the data, who owns it and what is done with it, its security and who has access legally or otherwise, and the ability of the UK government to protect our interests. Over all these there are big question marks. Defence experts have expressed deep concerns. When the New York Police Dept. cancelled its contract with Palantir, the company kept the insights it had gained. The Swiss army has cancelled its contract with them for the reasons set out here.
We should be deeply concerned by this firm’s penetration into our national life and be highly sceptical of promises by government ministers that they have adequate controls.
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#cyber #Defence #defense #IDF #Palantir #security
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