Palantir’s access to identifiable NHS England patient data is ‘dangerous’, MPs say
MPs have warned that an NHS decision to grant Palantir access to identifiable patient information in its plan to use AI to improve the health service is “dangerous” and will fuel public fears that data privacy is not being prioritised.NHS England has allowed staff from the US tech firm and other contractors to access patient data before it has been pseudonymised, despite internal fears of a “risk of loss of public confidence”, the Financial Times reported.The health service made the move to allow Palantir to access the data in recent weeks according to the reports, which revealed an internal NHS briefing that said it would allow “unlimited access to non-NHSE staff” to part of the NHS’s federated data platform (FDP), which holds identifiable patient information.Palantir, which also supports Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and the Israeli, US and UK militaries, was awarded a £330m contract to help build the FDP, installing AI systems to integrate scattered health datasets and bring efficiencies to medical treatment.But the deal has been dogged by warnings from campaigners and MPs concerned about the security of patient records.
The Patients Association said it was concerned patients were not consulted on a significant change to who has unlimited access to patient data.Rachel Power, its chief executive, said patients wanted “transparency, clear boundaries around access to their data, and to be consulted when changes to those agreements are proposed”.The leaked NHS England briefing acknowledged the “considerable public interest and concern about how much access to patient data Palantir/Palantir staff have”.In 2023, shortly after the deal was agreed, NHS England said it would ensure “personal data remains protected and within the NHS at all times”.NHS England stressed external consultants requiring data access must have government security clearance and that it had “strict policies in place for managing access to patient data”.
With hundreds of different datasets in the FDP system, it was becoming time-consuming for contractors, including Palantir engineers, to apply for individual permissions,Instances when they did see identifiable patient data while working on the system’s “pipelines” were logged,They did not have permission to remove the data from the NHS, Palantir said,But the MP Rachael Maskell, a former NHS worker who is calling for the Palantir project to be stopped, said: “As Palantir get their claws deeper into our NHS data we can see how it is opening it up to greater private interest,This is a dangerous development and I ask the government to get a grip on this project before it is too late.
”Palantir said it was a “data processor” and not a “data controller”, meaning its software could only be used to process data precisely in line with customer instructions.“Using the data for anything else would not only be illegal but technically impossible due to granular access controls overseen by the NHS,” it said.Martin Wrigley, a Liberal Democrat member of the Commons technology select committee, said of the NHS move: “This somewhat cavalier attitude to data security demonstrated how this whole project does not have security by design at its heart.The public will be rightfully concerned that data privacy is not the first concern.”Palantir is facing opposition to its widening role in the UK public sector.
Last month the Guardian revealed the company was closing in on a deal to widen its work with the Metropolitan police to use AI to analyse intelligence in criminal investigations, while hundreds of thousands of citizens and numerous backbench MPs oppose its role.Polling last week showed more than two-thirds of the UK public are concerned at Palantir’s growing number of public contracts and 40% distrust it to not access NHS patient data, despite the company repeatedly saying it cannot and will not do so.Tom Hegarty, the head of communications at Foxglove, a tech equity campaign group, said: “NHS patients never consented to have their data accessed by a company like Palantir whose record is in targeting people, not caring for them … Once again: Palantir fails the trust test.The government should … cut Palantir out of our NHS once and for all.”NHS England said access would be given to a small number of people working on the new data collection platform.
A spokesperson said: “The NHS has strict policies in place for managing access to patient data and carries out regular audits to ensure compliance – including monitoring the work of engineers helping to set up the central data collection platform that will track NHS performance and help improve care for patients.“Anyone external requiring access must have government security clearance and be approved by a member of NHS England staff at director level or above.”
Google announces raft of free upgrades for Android phones
Google has announced a range of features coming to Android phones this year, including a new Gemini Intelligence AI system and a tool to help users avoid distracting apps.Revealed in a livestreamed “Android Show” event, the free upgrades are scheduled to arrive in waves over the next year for high-end new and old phones alike, including Samsung and Pixel devices. Google also revealed that a new lineup of laptops will arrive in the autumn.Gemini Intelligence will combine the company’s top AI tools into one system aimed at being more proactively useful.It will be able to automate tasks by directly interacting with the apps already on a phone
Head of Microsoft’s Israel branch to step down after inquiry into dealings with Israeli military
The head of Microsoft’s Israeli subsidiary will step down in the wake of an inquiry that has scrutinised its business dealings with the Israeli military.Microsoft ordered the inquiry last year in response to a Guardian investigation revealing the military had used the company’s technology to operate a powerful surveillance system that collected Palestinian civilian phone calls on a mass scale.The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found the military’s elite spy agency, Unit 8200, had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted calls from Gaza and the West Bank.The inquiry commissioned by Microsoft is understood to have recently concluded. Its findings are unclear; however, sources familiar with the situation said they prompted an announcement last week that Microsoft Israel’s general manager, Alon Haimovich, would leave the company
GameStop’s $55.5bn bid for eBay rejected as ‘neither credible nor attractive’
The board of eBay has rejected the US video games retailer GameStop’s surprise $55.5bn bid (£41bn) for the online marketplace, describing the proposal as “neither credible nor attractive”.Earlier this month, GameStop made an unsolicited bid for eBay, publishing a letter on its website outlining a half-cash, half-stock proposal.This was despite the US games company – which became a global household name during the meme stock craze of 2021 – being worth far less than its takeover target. GameStop had a market valuation of roughly $12bn before its bid, almost a quarter of eBay’s $46bn valuation
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian.Donald Trump is headed to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, would join Trump
Trump heads to China to spread the gospel of American tech while emulating Xi Jinping on AI
Donald Trump is heading to China this week. If his guest list is any clue, he wants to discuss technology with Xi Jinping, though perhaps after the war in Iran.On Monday, news broke that outgoing Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as well as SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, would join the US president. Other guests from the tech sphere include Meta’s recently appointed president, Dina Powell McCormick; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of computer memory maker Micron; Chuck Robbins, CEO of longtime telecom giant Cisco; and Cristiano Amon, CEO of semiconductor maker Qualcomm, according to a White House official.Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO – who is close to Trump but criticized the US’s limitations on chip sales to China in an April interview, saying that he didn’t want a “loser mentality” to cost the US its edge in AI – will not be joining the president
Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create ‘new work’ by beloved French playwright
Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire.Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style.L’Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.The two-hour play tells the story of a wealthy bourgeois Parisian who, under the instruction of a charlatan astrologer called Pseudoramus, insists his daughter Lucile marry a debt-ridden and elderly wigmaker.While the theme could well have been dreamed up by Molière, the dialogue, music, costumes and scenery were all created with the help of a French AI tool called Le Chat (The Cat)
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