Having awarded a major contract to (controversial) data firm Palantir, a growing number of NHS staff are refusing to work with the firm's tools for ethical reasons, with wider passive resistance to its deployment.
One manger said: 'People are saying, ‘I refuse to work on this software. You have to find something else for me to do’... They’re calling it a workplace adjustment. [as] if you were disabled & needed a different desk, they’re literally treating it like that'!
@ChrisMayLA6 I was really pleased to see this.
I wrote to my (labour) MP saying I wanted to opt out of my data being given to Palantir (or anything associated with Peter Thiel) and got a very wet response about 'your data won't be hacked' (as if that was the issue...) I pointed out that having the big fox in the henhouse, keeping the other foxes out, didn't reassure me!
I didn't get a further response, but it does seem I'm not the only one in expressing such discomfort!
I've heard variations of this said before and while it might be a neat political deflection it completely misses the point.
MPs are mostly, sometimes laughably ignorant of technology but you'd hope that they'd make an effort to keep up with some of the more obvious technical trends and public sentiment.
I suppose the question is to what degree our MPs are aware of the global geopolitical implications, and by extension whether they themselves are conflicted.
Running a country using software and infrastructure provided by a foreign government raises some serious questions about national sovereignty.
@ChrisMayLA6 Good. Fuck Palantir and all stupid shoehorned in "spicy autocorrect" BS. Pushback has to happen in every company using these "tools", for as long as it takes for corporations to realise they are not profitable.
In fact, they are costing them money and time and people. Why spend more on some garbage in garbage out system that is only going to cause more headaches and frustration?
@ChrisMayLA6 the Grauniad was also reporting last year, when the DoH was leaning on NHS Trusts to accelerate its introduction, that frontline staff were also in revolt because the software was useless compared to what they were already using
Let’s hope the backlash kills it once & for all. Then we just need Palantir extricated from the police, military and all the other aspects of government in which they have been embedded
Yup, exactly what we all need to do where we can
This is encouraging news and I can even understand the choice to reuse an existing process to cater for the detractors, but I'm left wondering whether the govt understands or cares about the wider issues of technical sovereignty.
Thank you for info
One manger said: 'People are saying, ‘I refuse to work on this software. You have to find something else for me to do’.
A massive THANK YOU for such Persons with a conscience and backbone
Things which cannot be found in Starmers office or among his subordinated minions.
British under-statement, I'm afraid....
@ChrisMayLA6 you can crank up the pressure on the uk gov by signing this open letter to the uk government to cancel the #Palantir #NHS contract:
thanks, have done so
@ChrisMayLA6 and while we're rejecting #Palantir why not cut to the source of most problems: our behavioural data being harvested by #BigTech
I set up a non-profit, the Rebel Tech Alliance, to show people all the non-spyware alternatives that they can switch to:
https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/
We have a step-by-step programme called the #BigTechWalkout 😁 Collective action we can all take individually!
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