For almost two years, the British government has been holding an inquiry-cm-whitewash into the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the recent witnesses to that inquiry was Louis Mosley, the executive vice-president of Palantir Technologies UK… who during his testimony saw a rare opportunity to plug his company’s products. It was one he seized upon with relish.*
The UK government, he said, should invest in a “common operating system” for its data, encompassing the full gamut of departments and local authorities — a system that Palantir would presumably be more than happy to develop:
This comment is very similar to a remark made by Palantir’s Chief Technology Operator Shyam Sankar in 2021 — with regard to the US government:
Turning to government, we continue to advance our mission of becoming the US government’s central operating system as we extend our footprint across defence, healthcare and civilian agencies.
This is a company, after all, whose founder, Peter Thiel, has long marketed himself as a libertarian while lauding the benefits of monopoly capitalism and helping build the infrastructure of the modern surveillance state.
Few US companies have so brazenly aligned themselves with Israel during its ongoing genocide in Gaza. As one of the world’s most advanced data-mining companies, Palantir, together with the US National Security Agency, has furnished Israel’s military and intelligence agencies with advanced and powerful targeting capabilities. The company has even reportedly developed{X} software to help expedite Israel’s generation of kill lists for the Gaza strip.
Today, Palantir Technologies’ client list includes a wide array of government departments, from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to NHS England, as well as banks, other tech firms, insurance providers and Wendy’s. A company that aspires to be “in every missile (or drone)” has found fertile room for growth in both the US’ private healthcare industry and the UK’s publicly owned NHS. While two-thirds of its sales are still US-based, the company is rapidly expanding its overseas operations, particularly to the UK.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has awarded Palantir a $30 million contract to build an immigration OS surveillance platform. Once operational, that platform will provide the agency with “near real-time visibility” on people self-deporting from the United States and will also help ICE choose who to deport, according to a contract justification [published in a federal register]
Some folks might find investing in such distasteful. But how is it different from investing in tobacco corporations?
(SAM.gov) on Thursday.