Thread by @allthecitizens

As @allthecitizens explore the scope of US analytics company Palantir in UK institutions, we’ve found £91m+ awarded to the controversial Silicon Valley surveillance outfit across government. Let’s unpack the work they’re doing with the MoD...

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1346883489233301504?s=20

Palantir’s biggest UK client, the MOD, has awarded them £43m (4m more found since first reporting) contracts since 2015, including building a “search visualisation and analysis system”, a £28m contract relating to AI systems in combat aircraft. wccftech.com/palantir-secur…

In the US, Palantir recently took over a similar initiative. Project Maven was a Pentagon bid to build an AI surveillance platform for drone warfare. Google stepped away from the project citing ethical concerns. thenextweb.com/artificial-int…

They were also awarded £9m between 2015-2016 for undisclosed services. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Palantir has also won an MOD contract worth £1.67m for designing software to increase staff-retention in the Navy, which ran from May 2018-20, as well as £100k to work on the now-closed HMS Quorn.
contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/4ed6269…

But the digital payments made to Palantir by Navy Command suggest more money has gone to Palantir than reported, with repeat payments of £833,000 made more than once, each year since 2018, and a new £4m spend in April 2020 with the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA).

£4m going to a company that specialises in data analytics to work on Britain’s nuclear submarines raises questions as to whether the UK’s nuclear deterrent is being upgraded or integrated into AI or autonomous systems.

It also seems to contradict @thetelegraph’s recent report that UK military spending on Palantir products had dropped from £28m (2019) to just £2m (2020). The truth, though, is that it is very hard to get more information.
telegraph.co.uk/technology/202…

While Palantir in the US works with numerous intelligence agencies, their employment by UK armed forces is opaque. @allthecitizens asked the MoD if Palantir was involved in upcoming data projects, like the National Cyber Force (NCF) but the MoD would neither confirm nor deny.

Embedding Palantir in sensitive UK military projects has happened with little debate, despite potential security risks foreign companies might raise. For transparency, @allthecitizens calls for an inquiry into the work of Palantir and other data companies in British public life.