10 signatures reached
To: NHS England and Dept. of Health
Don't let Palantir near our NHS
The NHS and the Government are planning to introduce the Federated Data Platform whereby patient data is harvested to provide a national database. This in itself is a laudable and necessary aim and will allow analysis and research across the UK patient population.
However, they appear to have chosen a US firm, Palantir, to design and implement the system. There is little information about the bidding process or other companies who have bid. The contract has a cost, currently, of £480 million.
This amount of money could be better directed at nurse and junior doctor remuneration.
There appears to be minimal clinician or patient input to the system requirements. There is insufficient information about patients' ability to opt out from the data grab.
In the previously attempted exercise, care.data, Palantir was also involved. After a significant negative public reaction to the plan it was shelved. The NHS is trying to force the issue again under a different name.
We must allow full transparency and oversight of the bidding process, and prevent non-UK companies from having access to UK patient data. Safeguards must be in place regarding where the data are saved, i.e. not off-shore, and who will have access to the data.
Why is this important?
Palantir was formed by the CIA and its expertise is in surveillance and border security, NOT health or patient data.
Palantir is fully American owned. There is no guarantee that your patient data won't be harvested and stored outside the UK. This would make it very difficult to police the security of your data.
Although the data is meant to be anonymised various organisations could get hold of the means of restoring personal data from the database.
