chrisjjNew York City hospitals drop Palantir as controversial AI firm expands in UK
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/26/new-york-hospitals-palantir-ai
It seems like letting a company like Palantir anywhere near private medical data is a pretty bad idea. I am happy NYC is doing this.
Palantir builds software that customers use to work with their own data. Custody of the data remains with the customer.
This is like saying a hospital that uses Excel is handing over data to Microsoft.
while I understand the meaning here, modern Excel does handover data to Microsoft (via Copilot)...
How do I decline it?? I keep clicking no, hide, not interested, cancel, etc. but it keeps showing up and activating...if I had a nickel for every time I clicked it on accident in Azure because a layout shift moved it under my mouse when trying to press a button I would have a lot of nickels. It even showed up as an app on my phone because I guess the Office 365 entry got hijacked...
This isn’t accurate, Palantir business model includes mass surveillance for military/security purposes; if a company is concerned with privacy should think twice before handling it to Palantir, even if with all the assurances they might give in terms of data governance.
This is like saying a Swiss bank would share your secrets because shady people use Swiss banks. No. Confidentiality is literally built into their business model. Getting caught sharing customer data is one of the fastest ways for their business to crumble.
How many times are we gonna have to see businesses get caught sharing customer data before we learn to not just trust them?
What software from what companies do you use to store your personal data?
> This isn’t accurate, Palantir business model includes mass surveillance for military/security purposes;
You realize that this is not mutually exclusive with what I just wrote?
Palantir builds software for military and security purposes. But the customers don't give this data to Palantir, custody of this data remains with the customer.
It’s named evil corp. On purpose.
You’re calling people who critique Palantir “borderline Q-Anon” ?
While you yourself think Palantir’s products are “like Excel” ?
They are not.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/mar/26/ai-got-the-blam...
I'm calling people insinuating that Peter Thiel is going to use orbital weapons to assassinate people, as commenters in this thread are doing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47536467 are indeed borderline Q anon.
Also, I don't see anything in your link that contradicts the fact that governments' data remains in the custody of the government, not Palantir.
> Palantir builds software that customers use to work with their own data
After DOGE, a movement Palantir aided [1], I think it's fair for folks to wonder to what degree these firms have been infiltrated by extremists. Someone who will convince themselves that exporting to ICE or the Proud Boys the names of every New Yorker whose medical records say they are gay, circumcised or have had an abortion is legitimately the right thing to do.
Given Palantir's offering is becoming less differentiated by the day, I think it's fair for people to look for alternatives.
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-doge-irs-mega-api-data/
Why are so many entities dealing with Palantir? They are a poison pill for customers.
They don't have in-house talent to implement what they want. The same reasons they used to hire Deloitte/EY/KPMG/PwC. Palantir is one rung up from those places when it comes to talent/ability to deliver.
Palantir is a glorified IT consulting company. You tell them "I want a system to manage patient records" and they will dispatch a team of engineers fresh out of college to build it for you while charging top dollar. They are able to get government & military contracts because of lobbying and influence, but generally everything you see about them online is marketing.
Cambridge Analytica was much more successful as a marketing company, vastly overstating their influence and impact
I always tell people this - that Palantir is just IBM. Instant hate feedbacks from both left and right.
Left: They kill babies and have your poop data.
Right: They are so much more than that. That have super intelligence AI with drone puppetry. Have you seen the leaked dashboards!
spyware
Why is Palantir a spyware company, but Snowflake or Databricks are not? "Spyware" has an actual definition, and there are real companies that sell it, like Pegasus. It's not some catch-all term for what people call "evil".