Health Workers for a Free Palestine (HW4FP), a collective of healthcare workers in Britain, assembled outside NHS England’s (NHSE) London offices last week in opposition to a deal between NHSE and US spy-tech firm, Palantir, who recently agreed another deal with the Israeli Ministry of Defence “in support of war-related missions”. HW4FP, looked to demonstrate their opposition to both NHSE’s heavily redacted agreement with Palantir to handle patient data through a centralised Federated Data Platform (FDP) and also the handling of military data for the Israeli Occupation to continue genocidal actions in the Gaza Strip.
The spy-tech firm was established in 2003 by Silicon Valley magnate, Peter Thiel, known for its extensive work with the US military, security, intelligence and police agencies landing “at least $1.2 billion” in federal contracts between 2009 and 2016. It also retains an array of corporate clientele, including prominent names like BP, Airbus, and Ferrari.
Palantir has had significant involvement in various US government initiatives that have drawn criticism from a number of human rights organisations, questioning the role of private tech companies in the surveillance of civilian populations. The company's software played a pivotal role in facilitating the US immigration enforcement agency (ICE)'s stringent deportation policy under the administration of President Donald Trump. This policy led to the identification, tracking, and subsequent deportation of migrants and asylum seekers, resulting in family separations.
As discussed by impACT last year, NHS England awarded a £330 million contract to Palantir for the development of the FDP. News of the deal, particularly after a heavily redacted contract was made publicly available, ignited widespread concerns regarding patient privacy and the management of sensitive medical information. This concern is only compounded when confronted with Thiel’s public support for the privatisation of the Health Service. Expressing this in a lecture at Oxford University that the British public's attachment to the health service is akin to "Stockholm syndrome."
Palantir has added to it’s portfolio since January. Thiel and CEO, Alex Karp, conducted the companies first board meeting of the year in Tel Aviv, reportedly to reflect that the company “stands with Israel”. Though the data-mining corporation has been “active in Israel for the past decade” and it’s most recent deal agreed to “support war-related missions” only serves to further illuminate the concerning attitudes that the company holds for human rights. Companies engaging in business with a state, particularly business related to military operations, being actively investigated for genocide and ignoring the clear UN Security Council Resolution 2728, should (as stated in an earlier impACT report) be considered a vital part of the mechanisms carrying out genocidal acts and individuals should be tried accordingly.
Alex Karp, Palantir’s CEO, is a public supporter of the Israeli state. Framing this position within a narrative common with racist, colonialist foundations, in an interview with CNBC, Karp explained:
This is a position that has caused concern among his employees, with a number of individuals resigning due to Karp’s staunchly pro-Israeli stance, which has not faltered during the state’s genocidal acts in Gaza. Further, it is these rationalities that likely informs his organisations policy of “only supplying products to Western allies”. Inculcating this attitude, wholly colonial in nature, essentially placing other nations, states, cultures and ethnicities within a hierarchy in which Western, typically colonial states, stand at the apex, is a position that will perpetuate the kind of violence and oppression seen in the Gaza Strip, and ‘non-Western’ peoples in general. These ideologies, at the nexus of spy-tech firms and state military deals, pose a serious and dangerous threat to human rights.
The deal with IMOD, though the intimate details are have not yet been publicised, largely concerns establishing a more concrete “strategic partnership” to supply information technologies and data to help inform the Occupations military AI models. The reality of this deal for Palestinians, who, previous to October 7th, were already suffering under a highly oppressive, surveillance state, Palantir’s involvement will no doubt augment apartheid conditions.
Perhaps the most pertinent example of the realities of the application Palantir’s technology has been the perpetuation of 'racist' feedback loops within US predictive policing software. This has resulted in the disproportionate targeting of individuals in already heavily policed neighbourhoods, often non-white, exacerbating issues of police abuse. Palantir's extensive involvement in providing surveillance technology to various government agencies, including unauthorised data use by the FBI, the NSA’s XKEYSCORE tool, and various other projects which spy on civilians, matched with this latest military data deal, as well as, the heavy deployment of an “expansive facial recognition program” in the Gaza Strip shows the reality of the nature of this relationship with the Israeli Occupation. Several reports, from those waiting on aid or evacuation in Rafah, of Israeli military personnel identifying civilians through use of facial recognition softwares planted throughout choke-points in the south of the Strip paint a devastating picture of the already established surveillance apparatus implemented by the Occupying power. With Israel already imprisoning high numbers of Palestinians (which has also accelerated in the West Bank since October) often without any pretext, further application of this highly repressive tool will likely balloon these figures.
Whilst, of course, Palantir’s presence within the NHS does not pose the same threat to civilian freedoms in Britain as it does in Occupied Palestine, NHSE’s deal with the spy-tech firm is illustrative of a wider interconnectivity, and therefore, shared investment in highly repressive colonial machinations. The rooting of highly authoritarian tech companies, which harbour racist and colonialist ideologies (as well as, aiding the carrying out of ethnic cleansing and genocidal acts), within our healthcare system is, of course abhorrent and in complete contradiction to the notion of ‘healthcare’.
In terms of implementation within the NHS, leaked documents have revealed that NHS bosses have mandated the widespread implementation of Palantir's software across English hospitals. This move has raised alarm regarding the stewardship of patient data. The newly established database, known as 'Faster Data Flows,' aggregates daily information about hospital patients, including personal details such as dates of birth, postcodes, and comprehensive medical histories. This information, previously held by individual trusts and shared less frequently, is now pseudonymised before being transmitted to Palantir. Critics, including privacy experts, have questioned this practice. Dr. Neil Bhatia, a GP and data protection specialist, expressed concerns to openDemocracy, stating, "The data derived from the Covid-19 store remains both personal data and confidential information, given the richness of the data and the relative ease by which re-identification could occur."
The potential for the NHS's vast repository of medical data to be accessed or utilised in ways that infringe upon individual privacy rights is a concern that cannot be overlooked. This is especially pertinent given the increasing global trend of leveraging surveillance technologies under the guise of national security, which often leads to the erosion of personal freedoms and civil liberties.
Notably, the intersection of technology and healthcare has given rise to several notable partnerships, each bringing its own set of challenges and ethical considerations. A prominent example is Google's collaboration with Ascension, one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. The project, dubbed "Project Nightingale," aimed to leverage artificial intelligence to enhance patient care and outcomes. However, it quickly became mired in controversy due to concerns about the handling and privacy of patient data. Critics argued that the partnership lacked transparency and raised questions about the extent to which patients were informed about the use of their data.
Accordingly, in response to these various serious infringements on human rights and privacy, both at home and in Occupied Palestine, HW4FP are demanding Palantir’s immediate removal from the British healthcare system. This collaboration highlights the broader challenge of balancing technological advancements in healthcare with the preservation of privacy and human rights. As surveillance technologies become increasingly pervasive, the distinction between public health initiatives, national security, and individual rights becomes blurred. It is the nexus of private businesses military and surveillance, as well as, state institutions that so often deliver concerning risks to the British public in this case. This convergence necessitates a reevaluation of existing legal and ethical frameworks to ensure that they are equipped to address the complexities of modern surveillance practices and their impact on human rights.
impACT commends HW4FP for their commitment to the protection of the human rights enjoyed by Britons due to their access and trust in NHS systems and their steadfast opposition to the involvement of Palantir, involved in the continued genocidal acts within Occupied Palestine perpetrated by the Israeli state. We at impACT demand that NHSE bosses withdraw from any agreements with Palantir in order to protect British patient data and prevent the integration of militarised tech firms, involved in genocide, in our healthcare systems.