PALANTIR - Remember the name

There are names that stir unease before they reveal their intentions. Palantir is one of them—named after Tolkien’s “seeing stones,” instruments of vision, power, and control. Today, the company is embedded in the NHS. A private firm forged in military surveillance and intelligence now holds the keys to millions of patient records.We’re told this is progress. But progress for whom? 

In late 2023, NHS England awarded Palantir a £330 million, seven-year contract to build the Federated Data Platform (FDP), a system meant to centralise NHS data across England. The language—efficiency, modernisation, transformation—is familiar. But beneath it lies the quiet outsourcing of public power to private surveillance. 

Palantir’s history is not one of care. It was born from the CIA’s venture capital arm and honed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track undocumented migrants. More recently, it has been linked to Israeli military operations in Gaza. These are not abstract associations. They reveal a corporate philosophy rooted in control, not compassion. 

This is not the first time data systems have been weaponised. In the 1930s, IBM supplied punch-card technology to the Nazi regime—tools that helped the government identify and track Jewish communities. IBM didn’t run the camps. It built the system that made them possible. Palantir is not IBM. But the logic is the same: power cloaked in neutrality, tools sold as apolitical, consequences outsourced. 

Public trust is already breaking. Nearly half of people in England say they would opt out of sharing NHS data if a company like Palantir is involved. But for most patients, no real opt- out exists. The data is “pseudonymised”—a meaningless term when the company handling it also holds the tools to re-identify. 

Doctors’ organisations have pushed back. The British Medical Association, the Doctors’ Association UK, Medact, and Foxglove have all opposed the deal, citing threats to patient confidentiality and the NHS’s founding principles. A legal challenge is underway over the heavily redacted contract—417 of 586 pages were blacked out—and the lack of a proper tender process. 

Meanwhile, NHS staff on the ground report little improvement. Some trusts find Palantir’s software incompatible with their systems. Others say it increases their workload. At the same time, the company’s liability for data misuse is capped at just £150,000—a laughable figure for a billion-dollar firm. 

So why is Palantir here? 

The answer is depressingly familiar. They were already in the room. During the pandemic, Palantir was granted emergency access to NHS data systems. That foothold gave them an enormous advantage when bidding for the long-term platform. No meaningful alternatives were explored. No public debate was held. 

But there are better options. Platforms like OpenSAFELY, built during the pandemic by NHS doctors and researchers, allow for privacy-preserving, open-source analysis of sensitive data—without the need to centralise or commercialise it. Other European public-health systems use tools like Better (based on openEHR) or UK-developed platforms like Graphnet and Black Pear, which operate without ties to military surveillance. 

The question isn’t whether we need digital transformation in the NHS—we do. The question is who should lead it, and what values they should uphold. 

Palantir does not share the values of the NHS. It is a surveillance firm, not a care provider. And its growing role in our health system—quiet, complex, and largely invisible to the public—risks normalising a future in which healthcare is governed not by ethics or equity, but by algorithms and efficiency. 

If we care about the NHS as a system of care, not control, we must pay attention and do something. 

What we can do: 

- Demand transparency: Full release of the Palantir contract and a public inquiry into the procurement process. 

- Push for a real opt-out: Patients should have the right to refuse sharing their data beyond direct care. 

- Support public alternatives: Invest in NHS-led, open-source platforms with democratic oversight. 

- Lift liability caps: Private companies handling patient data must be fully accountable. 

- Connect: Join campaigns like No Palantir in Our NHS, write to your MP, and amplify voices of doctors, patients, and campaigners. 

The NHS was founded on the belief that healthcare is a right—not a commodity. The more we hand over its infrastructure to corporations built for surveillance and war, the more we forget that promise. 

Palantir does not belong in the NHS.