‘Potential security risk’: Unpacking the UK’s trust issues with Palantir

London, United Kingdom – Trust, once lost, is hard to claw back. For Palantir Technologies, a leading defence and intelligence software firm in the United States, the trust that the company established in the United Kingdom on a one-British-pound ($1.37) National Health Service (NHS) contract during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 – which translated into a six-year relationship worth nearly 400 million pounds ($546m) – has recently eroded. This has been accelerated in part by Palantir’s own conduct. Recommended Stories list of 4 items end of list The company’s X account posted a 22-point manifesto recently that alarmed critics and prompted renewed questions about whether a company with such openly militaristic values is an appropriate steward of a health patient’s most sensitive data. Among the points were calls for universal national military service and the advancement of “AI weapons”. “Palantir is perceived as a defence contractor,” said Duncan McCann, the technology and data lead at legal campaign group the Good Law Project. “If they had just stayed in that lane, I think people might accept that. But a defence company has inherently different values than [a healthcare organisation like] the NHS, and that’s where I think this [concern] was created.” What seemed like a long shot four or five months ago now feels within reach to McCann. …