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Does anyone know why a private govtech business like Palantir doesn’t take over all these use cases? Governments are notoriously bad at tech, why isn’t there a

Does anyone know why a private govtech business like Palantir doesn’t take over all these use cases? Governments are notoriously bad at tech, why isn’t there a massive private corporation catering to all these use cases and ensuring state of the art security? Instead of hiring local clowns that release half baked solutions like this.

rubenfiszel 3y ago
Palantir is a particularly bad example, it being american. France care a lot about sovereignty and would never allow (and for good reasons) an external entity to have that much control. It probably did ask for a contractor on an "appel d'offre" to build this so it's the same but with a french actor.
- liotier 3y ago
  We, French, do actually have seriously competent people in charge of central government IT infrastructure. Local governments not so much and that is an euphemism, but French central government doesn't cut corners about that. Also, ANSSI is among the world's best in security auditing and they take very diligently their public service role of sticking their noses into your information system if you are legally classified as an "Opérateur d'Importance Vitale". Also, f*k Palantir. No one wants such vampire squids anywhere near the crown jewels.
  - possiblelion 3y ago
    Palantir is not trusted, at all anywhere outside the U.S.
    - fmajid 3y ago
      It's not trusted in the US either.
  - fmajid 3y ago
    Also competent technology companies like Thalès (Gemalto).
    - usr1106 3y ago
      Unclear to me whether that comment is sarcastic or not. I'd vote for the former, but many purchasers don't.
  - louison11 3y ago
    Good to know, thanks for the information. It's just that I am French (living abroad), and when I use administrative websites, I often encounter forms and situations that have clearly been coded "avec les pieds." Like the forms on embassy websites to requests passports, that instead of providing options to get appointments even 6+ months in the future, force the user to refresh the page multiple times per day in hope of finding a slot. Same thing with "RDVPermis", their new driver license application platform, where people are using bots to refresh the page every 20 seconds. That's not security-sensitive, but it's clearly not optimally designed and I wonder who decides that it's better design to let people go mad refreshing the page - instead of letting them book even 6 or 9 months later, which sucks, but at least have a pleasant experience. I also overall wonder why so many procedures in this country are so slow (such as passport appointments for people living abroad), and why nobody is figuring out a way to make it all faster in this age of technology. Surely, a private company with a startup mindset could automate and find ways to expedite all these things that have no reason to be so slow. I deal with bureaucracy in the US, and UK, and everything is usually at least 5 times faster and easier.
ajb 3y ago
Look at the history of crypto AG https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51487856 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51487856
sircastor 3y ago
Because governments, like almost all entities, are beholden to budgets and accounting which incentivizes low spending. So you get lowest-bid contractors. On top of that, Europe (and especially France, IMO) isn’t real comfortable with foreign tech solutions at the moment. Hence hiring the “local clowns”
laurent123456 3y ago
One company doing everything would just incite them to charge whatever they want at the taxpayer expenses, and do the bare minimum since there would be no competition to drive them out of business.
GaelFG 3y ago
In fact they do. Barely any development FOR the french government is done internally, all is externalized to "specialized" extern private companies (a known exemple Cap Gemini). I wouldn't call them clowns, and they do have competent people but they totally do focus more on public money extraction than on quality, like nearly all monopoly position companies. Results are sometime good sometime not.
- LunaSea 3y ago
  Calling them clowns would be an insult to clowns.
  - intelVISA 3y ago
    Clown Gemini, perhaps?
- PoignardAzur 3y ago
  It's starting to change, though. In fact, it's very frustrating that the french government keeps delegating projects to SSII consultants long after it's built up its own very competent open-source-friendly developer workforce.
Thaxll 3y ago
Palantir is nowhere compared to Thales ( French compagny ): https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/identity https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-... They even serve cards for the DoD: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/customer-cases/usa-dod https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-...

rubenfiszel 3y ago

Palantir is a particularly bad example, it being american. France care a lot about sovereignty and would never allow (and for good reasons) an external entity to have that much control. It probably did ask for a contractor on an "appel d'offre" to build this so it's the same but with a french actor.

liotier 3y ago
We, French, do actually have seriously competent people in charge of central government IT infrastructure. Local governments not so much and that is an euphemism, but French central government doesn't cut corners about that. Also, ANSSI is among the world's best in security auditing and they take very diligently their public service role of sticking their noses into your information system if you are legally classified as an "Opérateur d'Importance Vitale". Also, f*k Palantir. No one wants such vampire squids anywhere near the crown jewels.
- possiblelion 3y ago
  Palantir is not trusted, at all anywhere outside the U.S.
  - fmajid 3y ago
    It's not trusted in the US either.
- fmajid 3y ago
  Also competent technology companies like Thalès (Gemalto).
  - usr1106 3y ago
    Unclear to me whether that comment is sarcastic or not. I'd vote for the former, but many purchasers don't.
- louison11 3y ago
  Good to know, thanks for the information. It's just that I am French (living abroad), and when I use administrative websites, I often encounter forms and situations that have clearly been coded "avec les pieds." Like the forms on embassy websites to requests passports, that instead of providing options to get appointments even 6+ months in the future, force the user to refresh the page multiple times per day in hope of finding a slot. Same thing with "RDVPermis", their new driver license application platform, where people are using bots to refresh the page every 20 seconds. That's not security-sensitive, but it's clearly not optimally designed and I wonder who decides that it's better design to let people go mad refreshing the page - instead of letting them book even 6 or 9 months later, which sucks, but at least have a pleasant experience. I also overall wonder why so many procedures in this country are so slow (such as passport appointments for people living abroad), and why nobody is figuring out a way to make it all faster in this age of technology. Surely, a private company with a startup mindset could automate and find ways to expedite all these things that have no reason to be so slow. I deal with bureaucracy in the US, and UK, and everything is usually at least 5 times faster and easier.

ajb 3y ago

Look at the history of crypto AG https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51487856 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51487856

sircastor 3y ago

Because governments, like almost all entities, are beholden to budgets and accounting which incentivizes low spending. So you get lowest-bid contractors. On top of that, Europe (and especially France, IMO) isn’t real comfortable with foreign tech solutions at the moment. Hence hiring the “local clowns”

laurent123456 3y ago

One company doing everything would just incite them to charge whatever they want at the taxpayer expenses, and do the bare minimum since there would be no competition to drive them out of business.

GaelFG 3y ago

In fact they do. Barely any development FOR the french government is done internally, all is externalized to "specialized" extern private companies (a known exemple Cap Gemini). I wouldn't call them clowns, and they do have competent people but they totally do focus more on public money extraction than on quality, like nearly all monopoly position companies. Results are sometime good sometime not.

LunaSea 3y ago
Calling them clowns would be an insult to clowns.
- intelVISA 3y ago
  Clown Gemini, perhaps?
PoignardAzur 3y ago
It's starting to change, though. In fact, it's very frustrating that the french government keeps delegating projects to SSII consultants long after it's built up its own very competent open-source-friendly developer workforce.

Thaxll 3y ago

Palantir is nowhere compared to Thales ( French compagny ): https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/identity https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-... They even serve cards for the DoD: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/customer-cases/usa-dod https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-...