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.”
