Palantir deal could hand your personal data to Trump administration

A scandalous deal between hard-right AI war firm Palantir and the UK’s financial authority could hand the Trump administration your personal data. Meanwhile, campaigners and MPs say that the deal with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must prove that sensitive information will not fall into Trump’s hands.

On 1 June, the Guardian reported:

A US law that can oblige tech companies to disclose information to American authorities may apply to Palantir’s deal to help the Financial Conduct Authority detect crime.

House of Commons science and technology select committee Martin Wrigley MP delivered the warning. He was quoted by the Guardian saying that Palantir’s role poses grave concerns:

The $375bn tech company, co-founded by the Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, is expected to apply its AI systems to a wide range of the FCA’s information including case intelligence files, reports from lenders about proven and suspected frauds, consumer complaints and trawls of social media posts […] The arrangement is now at a 12-week trial stage.

From the UK government to military, police, NHS, and the Conservative Telegraph, Palantir’s AI reach extends far. Its complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Trump-vetted immigration raids is well documented. Furthermore, it is known for its far-right ‘civilisational’ ideology. As for the FCA, it oversees UK financial services firms. It sets standards they must meet and holds them accountable when they don’t.

helps underpin the UK’s reputation as a leading global financial centre – one where consumers are well served, and firms can operate and innovate with clarity and certainty.

That reputation, such as it is, is going to dissolve quickly if Palantir starts mining data for uncle Sam’s security machine.

Handing more power to Trump

Liberal Democrat Wrigley cautioned against the Palantir deal, saying:

My concern is the FCA is doing very significant investigations into sensitive data using a foreign-controlled company that could be advised to pass data across to the US government.

An FCA official told the Commons Treasury committee in March that US law would not apply. However, campaigners disagree. Digital campaign organisation Open Rights Group said American law:

gives US authorities the right to access data held by businesses based in the US, such as Palantir.

The group’s legal and policy officer Mariano delli Santi said:

the US was not bound by UK legal frameworks which define the right of “data controllers” to decide how and why personal data is processed […] By handing over data to Palantir, the FCA is pushing UK residents’ data into the meat grinder of the Trump administration.

The data could also fall under the Patriot Act, which explicitly includes financial information, as well as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows US authorities to monitor non-citisens’ digital communications outside the US without a warrant.

The Patriot Act is a post 9/11 legal framework used to ‘counter terrorism’. Supporters say so anyway… Critics say it is a licence for mass surveillance, indefinite detention and state oppression. In particular, it targets immigrants — especially Muslims. You can read the US NGO Legal Clarity’s critique here.

Palantir isn’t just an innocuous software firm. It profits from genocide-linked death merchants, and the Labour government’s cosy relationship with co-founders Alex Karp and Peter Thiel should disturb us all. After all, the tech behemoth should have no sway over governance, policing, the military, the media—or anything else, for that matter.

Featured image via Carl Court / Getty Images