In 2023, the then-Conservative government awarded Palantir with a £330m contract to “build a new NHS data platform”. The move proved controversial because Palantir is a US spy tech firm and its co-founder Peter Thiel is a prominent Trump donor with links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now, a trove of leaked emails have shone further light on Thiel’s connections.
The fuck is the NHS doing even talking to Palantir? That’s nuts.
It’s universally true that having more and better information can improve business and efficiency. (This of course has limits, yes.)
I’m sure they were offering data that would help the agency.
Now the ethics, and creepiness? I’m not commenting on that. Palantir is not ethical. They labor under twisted logic.
And every time we mention their name online, we probally get a demerit in their database.
The liability is obviously not high enough if keeping and sharing this data works out positively. Even if the parties involved weren’t obviously evil, the risk to the people is too high for them to accept the risk with only trivial, speculative improvements.
The UK has been doing some seriously batshit things lately. Obviously we’re not ones to talk but - yeah. It’s sad.
Wait, who are we - Lemmy?
Er, no us Idiot Americans that supposedly elected a demented rapist who explicitly said he would set himself up as a dictator.
Oh yeah they are in deep cahoots you should read the investigative journalism article they mention from earlier this summer.
Yeah I’m not surprised about the Thiel/Epstein thing, I’m more surprised that the NHS is considering any sort of private health data handling by PALANTIR of all companies.
Somebody is going to be getting a Non-executive board membership or millionaire consulting “gig” from one of Tiel’s companies or one from one of his friends…
By this point in time in Britain that kind of I thing has been going on long enough to almost be tradition.