Financial Times · Palantir · Donald Trump · Israel · The Guardian Technology
MPs have warned that an NHS decision to grant Palantir access to identifiable patient information in its plan to use
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NHS England has allowed staff from the US tech firm and other contractors to access patient data before it has been pseudonymised, despite internal fears of a “risk of loss of public confidence”, the Financial Times reported.
Key facts
- Palantir, which also supports Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and the Israeli, US and UK militaries, was awarded a £330m contract to help build the FDP, installing AI systems to integrate
- But the MP Rachael Maskell, a former NHS worker who is calling for the Palantir project to be stopped, said: “As Palantir get their claws deeper into their NHS data they can see how it is opening it up
- Polling last week showed more than two-thirds of the UK public are concerned at Palantir’s growing number of public contracts and 40% distrust it to not access NHS patient data, despite the company
- Martin Wrigley, a Liberal Democrat member of the Commons technology select committee, said of the NHS move: “This somewhat cavalier attitude to data security demonstrated how this whole project
Summary
MPs have warned that an NHS decision to grant Palantir access to identifiable patient information in its plan to use AI to improve the health service is “dangerous” and will fuel public fears that data privacy is not being prioritised. The health service made the move to allow Palantir to access the data in recent weeks according to the reports, which revealed an internal NHS briefing that said it would allow “unlimited access to non-NHSE staff” to part of the NHS’s federated data platform (FDP), which holds identifiable patient information.
The Patients Association said it was concerned patients were not consulted on a significant change to who has unlimited access to patient data.