Thread by @StefSimanowitz

1. Hours before recess, PM quietly announced that Downing St had taken control of the govt’s use of data.

Trump did EXACT same thing in the US last week.

This is not a coincidence!

It is part of a single, coordinated US-UK strategy. #Palantir #COVID

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1285187606519717888?s=21

https://t.co/Pmyc3nJm2q

2. Now I know this may sound counter intuitive, but I ask you read to the end of the thread & ideally the thread embedded above☝️

I don't pretend to have a single clear explanation, but I believe I have part of it.

Everything is fact-based.

Only v occasionally do I speculate.

3. In May, Amnesty warned: “The shadowy data-mining firm Palantir, whose technology has powered some of the most nefarious immigration abuses, is now collecting troves of health data about all of us.”

Palantir is running US & UK govt's #COVID platforms.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

4. #Palantir, run by right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, won a $7.5m contract to build the #COVID digital platform for US Health Dept (HHS) in April.

They won a similar contract in the UK for the NHS in April. This contract has just been extended for £1m.

5. On 8 July, Boris Johnson announced that SAGE had been sidelined & in favour of the secretive Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) which has taken over UK's #coronavirus response.

It is led by Clare Gardiner, a cybersecurity expert seconded from govt's GCHQ.
bbc.co.uk/news/health-53…

6. Six days later, on 14 July, the Trump admin ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC & send all #coronavirus data to a Washington database run by the company, Teletracking, & to "HHS Protect", run by #Palantir

@nytimes said it had alarmed health officials.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1283119890484867076

7/. Whilst journalists & politicians in the US are starting to ask questions about Palantir’s role, this isn’t happening in UK.

30 members of Congress, including @ewarren & @JulianCastro, just called for greater transparency on how Palantir will use data.

https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1286006397772222466?s=21

https://t.co/phU7JKf9b5

8/. Information about these Palantir contracts was not disclosed by the US & UK govts without a fight.

In the US, @nytimes had to sue the @CDCgov under the Freedom of Information Act & in UK govt only revealed contract details on the eve of a lawsuit brought by @openDemocracyUK.

9/. In the weeks since the HHS took over from the CDC, much of US’s #COVID19 data has become inaccessible.

Similarly, the UK govt stopped sharing data on testing in mid-May.

Asked why, ministers seem unwilling or unable to offer an intelligible reason.

10/. Palantir was awarded the NHS & HHS coronavirus contracts without a competitive tender.

The UK govt say #Palantir & #FacultyAI (the British company working on the digital platform with them) “did not need to bid” because of pre-existing NHS contracts. bylinetimes.com/2020/04/22/pal…

11/. The pre-existing £250m NHS contract to build an AI Lab, had been signed with #FacultyAI in August 2019, but was only publicly announced on 13 March.

#FacultyAI was set up by Ben & Marc Warner.

They worked on Conservative election & Leave campaigns.

12/. It was reported that a £400K contract awarded directly to Faculty allows them to analyse social media data, utility bills & credit rating scores. Details are unknown b/c the published contract was partly redacted.

Ben Warner joined No.10 in 2019. He sat in 13 SAGE meetings.

13/ The contract with #Palantir & #FacultyAI to build a "Covid Data Store" for the NHSX - the NHS's digital unit - permits processing data including:
👉racial origin
👉political affiliations
👉religious/other beliefs
👉criminal records
👉mental health info
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

14/. Since taking #coronavirus data-collection responsibilities away from the CDC & giving them to the HHS, it seems that data on #COVID19 hospitalisations has become “unstable” with some states posting that their figures are “incomplete”. #Palantir #COVID

https://twitter.com/covid19tracking/status/1287878486145695744?s=21

https://t.co/sOK7bacWIj

15/. More evidence that since the #Trump admin stripped responsibility of #COVID19 data from the CDC & gave the responsibility to the HHS who gave it to #Palantir, a lot of data is now unavailable.

In the UK, data goes to Palantir & Faculty via the new Joint Biosecurity Centre.

16/. "I don't know, & I've asked lots of people to tell me, what organisations the #JointBiosecurityCentre is joint between.

It is in the shadows - shadowed from citizen's knowledge of it & we have no idea how exactly it operates." @GabrielScally of @IndependentSage on the #JCB

17). “Transparency builds confidence. Secrecy, poor information & poor communication destroys [it].

Its impossible to have when there are organisations that run the show, about which we have no knowledge, no insight & no connection."
@GabrielScally on the #JointBiosecurityCentre

18/. Today it emerged that as well as the NHS digital contract, the UK govt has ALSO awarded oversight of the UK’s post-Brexit border & customs data to #Palantir

It is run by very right-wing billionaire, #PeterThiel.
#ThisIsNotADrill #COVID19 #Coronavirus theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

19/. Ystdy, it emerged #Palantir Canada president, David MacNaughton, broke conflict-of-interest rules by offering Palantir's services to the govt as part of its #COVID19 response

He arranged multiple meetings with officials to offer their "pro bono help"
politico.com/news/2020/09/1…

20/. Palantir goes public on Weds, (23/9)

It won’t launch a traditional IPO (initial public offering) but will list directly on NY Exchange

IPOs typically involve selling shares via underwriters

In a direct listing, holders sell shares on the exchange.
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.fool…

21/. Palantir said in its third updated prospectus that it has 2.17 billion fully diluted shares, including over 250 million options & restricted stock units that haven't vested

#Palantir’s valuation could thus be well over $20 billion. cnbc.com/2020/09/14/pal…

22/. Palantir lost $580 million in 2019 according to @kateconger & @eringriffith in @nytimes

@profgalloway notes that 17 after it was set up “& after raising $3 billion, the #Palantir has never made money”.
#BioInvasiveSureveillanceCapitalism #PalantirIPO nytimes.com/2020/08/21/tec…

23/. According to early Facebook investor, Roger McNamee (aka @Moonalice):

“Palantir exists to allow law enforcement to investigate citizens without obtaining a warrant...The business model of #Palantir undermines civil rights.” (via @profgalloway)

24/. A word cloud of #Palantir’s S-1 “reads like a survivalist manifesto” says @profgalloway & “the idolatry of Thiel & Karp as reflected in the S-1” is a red flag.

An S-1 contains the basic business & financial info on an issuer with respect to a specific securities offering.

25/. Palantir states their mission is to become “the default operating system for data across the US govt.”

@profgalloway asks: “Is Peter Thiel the person to default to for influence/control of the operating systems for relationships, & now govt? profgalloway.com/palanthiel-the…

26/. “Do we look at the outcomes from Facebook & think, ‘We should put the guy overseeing Zuckerberg in charge of the algorithms controlling what data the govt collects on us?’

The invisible hand of FB (Thiel) could control Palantir & the operating system of govt.” @profgalloway

27/. Last week, it was reported that #Palantir had hired Citadel Securities to oversee its direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Citadel will be the designated market maker, with the job of helping to determine demand & pricing for the shares. google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bloo…

28/. The S-1 prospectus into #Palantir’s IPO offering is analysed here by @CestrianInc

“We were excited about the listing,” they write. “Until we read the S-1”

“We're at Neutral pending improvements in cashflow. This is a nontrivial matter for the stock”
biedex.markets/palantir-direc…

29/. In 2016, #Palantir's #PeterThiel hosted a dinner with Kevin DeAnna, one of the US's most influential white nationalists - a man who has called for the creation of a white ethnostate. Thiel emailed the next day to say how much he’d enjoyed his company. buzzfeednews.com/article/rosieg…

30/. #Palantir’s #PeterThiel’s associations with the far-right are disturbing.

In 2018, he said: "I'd hope for more scientific & technological progress is the too heavy hand of the state...The specific one I'm most attracted to is whether we can do new bio medical things.”

31/ Most descriptions of #Palantir focus on their surveillance & data scraping activities & their work with intelligence agencies.

But #PeterThiel's interest in “bio medical things" should alert us to the fact that their #COVID19 work is all about health/medical data.

32/. In 2018, a Bloomberg piece - “Palantir knows everything about you” - showed how Palantir were tracking virtually every US citizens & were looking for new customers

In July, it was revealed #Palantir have NHS & other intimate data of all UK citizens
bloomberg.com/features/2018-…