- Palantir awarded three-month contract ahead of possible extension
- The American data company would have access to seriously sensitive information
- Critics have linked Palantir to ICE, Israel’s military and broader human rights concerns.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has awarded Palantir a three-month trial contract worth more than £30,000 per week to analyze the body’s data.
This would mean Palantir would need access to highly sensitive regulatory data, including cases of fraud, money laundering and insider trading, as well as bank reports, consumer complaints and personally identifiable information (PII), such as emails and phone numbers.
Palantir’s AI is likely to be introduced to handle huge amounts of data and detect patterns much faster than human analysts.
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Contract between the United Kingdom and Palantir on trial
the guardian warns of “very significant privacy concerns” regarding the use of AI with some of the most sensitive data out there, without mentioning that the work the FCA does is also particularly sensitive, aiming to tackle drug trafficking, human trafficking and the like.
The US data company already has a growing presence in the UK government, with more than £500 million in UK public sector contracts across the NHS, police and defence. However, critics warn that although Palantir started out quite small in the UK, it could infiltrate further and become deeply intertwined with UK politics.
Palantir has earned its fair share of criticism for its ties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States and the Israeli military. MPs have called the company “questionable” and cited human rights concerns.
As for the FCA’s proposed contract, data will continue to be stored in the UK and the FCA will retain intellectual property rights to the insights generated. Palantir must also delete data once the contract expires; However, questions have been raised over the FCA’s decision to use real data in the pilot rather than synthetic data.
“We have carried out a competitive procurement process and have strict controls in place to ensure data is protected,” an FCA spokesperson added.
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