Palantir · U.S. · Wired · Wired
There are also questions over the efficacy of Palantir’s NHS data service
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Protesters wearing hospital gowns and wielding signs gathered outside a UK health care conference on Thursday to object to a deal between the country’s National Health Service and American software company Palantir.
Key facts
- At 8 am local time, the group, around 80 people in total, crowded the entryway to the NHS ConfedExpo in Manchester
- The UK government first started working with Palantir in 2020, in the early throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, as it sought to track the virus
- Comments made in 2023 by Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel—who said the UK should “rip the whole [NHS] from the ground and start over”—led some to question the company’s suitability as a UK government
- They wanted to appeal to NHS leadership to terminate a contract worth up to $440 million over concerns around national security, data privacy, and the company’s political affiliations
Summary
At 8 am local time, the group, around 80 people in total, crowded the entryway to the NHS ConfedExpo in Manchester. Huddling under a line of trees to shelter from the pelting rain, the protesters held up signs that read, “Patients vs. Palantir.” As conference attendees filtered past, some stopped to speak to the protesters, who chanted to the beat of a drum. One protester, who gave his name as John and identified himself as an NHS nurse, tells WIRED he worries about sensitive health data falling into the hands of a foreign entity and objects to Palantir’s work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Israeli military.