The U.K. government has terminated its data-sharing contract with Palantir following criticism from privacy campaigners. The Department of Health and Social Care issued a tender in August to move its Adult Social Care Dashboard from Palantir to a new system called EDGE, which has been built by U.K. defense giant BAE Systems.

 “The future UK Health Security Agency Architecture … is seeking to move away from reliance on third-party data analytics platforms and software,” the tender reads.

“DHSC wishes to migrate from the current Palantir solution to the EDGE (Environment for Data Gathering and Engineering) system. This system was established and developed by BAE Systems for DHSC (and it) was progressed at pace during the pandemic.”

The London-based IT consultant Mozaic Services won the tender and will receive £100,000 ($138,000) for completing the migration, according to public records. The project started on Aug. 18 and runs until Sept. 30, which was supposed to be the date when Palantir automatically renews the contract. 

Bloomberg first reported about the contract termination but The Department of Health and Social Care and Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The company was founded by the billionaire Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who has a seat on Facebook’s board and a member of “the PayPal mafia” with Elon Musk. His company provides its data analytics platform to government departments, spy agencies, and other businesses across the globe.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Palantir’s software rose to fame as several nations shifted focus to health data. For instance, Britain used Palantir’s technology to understand the massive quantities of Covid-19 data that is collected during the pandemic. It was awarded a two-year contract in Dec. 2020 that is yet to be terminated.

Clive Lewis, a Labour party member of Parliament and one of the campaign’s backers, accused Palantir of having an “appalling track record.”

“It’s built its business supporting drone and missile strikes, immigration raids and arrests, not the delivery and care of medicine,” Lewis told CNBC. “It’s got a questionable agenda, and I think that will have a negative impact on patient trust, particularly among minoritized communities who may feel a threat from big government.”

Palantir also has contracts with Britain’s Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defense. 

The U.K. government has terminated its data-sharing contract with Palantir following criticism from privacy campaigners. The Department of Health and Social Care issued a tender in August to move its Adult Social Care Dashboard from Palantir to a new system called EDGE, which has been built by U.K. defense giant BAE Systems.

 “The future UK Health Security Agency Architecture … is seeking to move away from reliance on third-party data analytics platforms and software,” the tender reads.

“DHSC wishes to migrate from the current Palantir solution to the EDGE (Environment for Data Gathering and Engineering) system. This system was established and developed by BAE Systems for DHSC (and it) was progressed at pace during the pandemic.”

The London-based IT consultant Mozaic Services won the tender and will receive £100,000 ($138,000) for completing the migration, according to public records. The project started on Aug. 18 and runs until Sept. 30, which was supposed to be the date when Palantir automatically renews the contract. 

Bloomberg first reported about the contract termination but The Department of Health and Social Care and Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Palantir rose to fame during the coronavirus pandemic

The company was founded by the billionaire Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who has a seat on Facebook’s board and a member of “the PayPal mafia” with Elon Musk. His company provides its data analytics platform to government departments, spy agencies, and other businesses across the globe.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Palantir’s software rose to fame as several nations shifted focus to health data. For instance, Britain used Palantir’s technology to understand the massive quantities of Covid-19 data that is collected during the pandemic. It was awarded a two-year contract in Dec. 2020 that is yet to be terminated.

Clive Lewis, a Labour party member of Parliament and one of the campaign’s backers, accused Palantir of having an “appalling track record.”

“It’s built its business supporting drone and missile strikes, immigration raids and arrests, not the delivery and care of medicine,” Lewis told CNBC. “It’s got a questionable agenda, and I think that will have a negative impact on patient trust, particularly among minoritized communities who may feel a threat from big government.”

Palantir also has contracts with Britain’s Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defense.