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MoD sources warn Palantir role at heart of government is threat to UK security
- cjs_ac 8mo agoTIL that the head of Palantir's UK arm is the grandson of Sir Oswald Mosley, founder and leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
- GaryBluto 8mo agoSins of the father are not sins of the (grand)son.
- stephc_int13 8mo agoOf course, but this lineage should indeed encourage some scrutiny.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- graemep 8mo agoEspecially as multiple people in his family have had fascist sympathies. Given his ancestry wearing a black shirt for a TV interview was pretty bad judgement.
- persedes 8mo agoIf it quacks like a duck...?
- graemep 8mo agoTo an extent, but with caution and charity. A lot of exceptionally good people have come from bad families - one of the Borgias was a saint, for example. A lot of exceptionally nasty people seem to have perfectly nice families. Of course sometimes people who are, for example, brought up to be racist, are racist.
- nisegami 8mo agoOf course not, the grandson is hard at work on his own sins.
- GaryBluto 8mo agoMy point exactly.
- coldtea 8mo agoYou'd be surprised how often the beliefs of the father/grandfather are those of the son/grandson, not to mention how often they feel the need to avenge for the perceived injustices or slights done to their parents
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
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- e2le 8mo agoGiven the history of his family, one would expect them to avoid risqué associations and activities. I think it deserves some scrutiny.
- SanjayMehta 8mo agoHe's in good company. MI6 head is Blaise Metreweli whose grandfather was Constantine Dobrowolski, the Nazis' chief informant in Chernihiv, Ukraine.
- penguin_booze 8mo agoApples don't usually fall that far from the tree.
- rsynnott 8mo ago... I'm sorry, what? If this was a political drama, that would be written out on the basis that it wasn't believable.
- callamdelaney 8mo ago[flagged]
- ImPostingOnHN 8mo agoInteresting opinions. What do you reckon makes you think those things?
- ksec 8mo agoNot that I disagree with you on how poor the UK Government are, but why are the MOD "wokest organisations on the planet" ? If you are talking about DEI, then it isn't just MOD but the whole HMG are part of the same policy and initiative.
- Skgqie1 8mo agoHiw does "woke" pose a threat to national security? What exactly do you mean by "wokeness"?
- callamdelaney 8mo ago[flagged]
- hobs 8mo agoYou do not define wokeness except as an opposition to... nations? You are deep in the propaganda hole and you should attempt to claw yourself out a bit before trying to convince others of your irrationality.
- callamdelaney 8mo ago[flagged]
- jjgreen 8mo agoA cold flannel on the forehead and a lie-down in a darkened room might help.
- padolsey 8mo agoCan anyone familiar with the technology help disillusion naive people like me as to why on earth palantir needs to exist? It feels like a big pile of nothing. But tbf that's how I feel about Salesforce and Jira too. Big fat database schemas with big fat CRUD atop and layers of snazzy sparklines to make PMs and clients feel nurtured and fuzzy that they've done something material.
- vscode-rest 8mo ago[dead]
- jagged-chisel 8mo agoWhy does Palantir specifically need to exist? To funnel those juicy government budgets into shareholders' pockets. Why does anyone bother to use them? Because they have convincing marketing (which may or may not include buttering government palms with, um, "incentives" ...) Occam's razor: It's a big pile of "list of things being handled by an outside entity so I neither have to think about it, nor hire for them."
- edgyquant 8mo agoIf Palantir wasn’t highly effective at aggregating data no one would care about the. They are considered a threat to privacy and freedom because they are a good product
- wizzwizz4 8mo agoThat's part of it, but not the whole story. If Palantir were a book, explaining how to implement data aggregation systems effectively, people wouldn't be so wary of it. (Critics would still criticise that data aggregation was performed in the first place, of course, but there wouldn't be the additional "and it's Palantir".)
- lesuorac 8mo agoIs Palantir actually that good? Or did all the governments just have enough brain drain they can't think of an alternative? Like if their product was so good why isn't Amazon using it? Like their case studies all seem to be pre-internet companies that probably never developed a computer competency. If I bring a themostat back into the past all the peasants are going to think it's black magic. If I show it off as a college project I'm not getting a passing grade.
- llm_nerd 8mo agoIt is insanity that any country would give an iota of data, much less any sort of control, to an org like Palantir. Any government representative for countries outside of the US or Israel that recommends such a vile trojan horse needs to be outed as the traitorous plant that they are. Every element of their personal life needs to be scrutinized, because the only scenario where they would come to such a recommendation is corruption. Quite aside from that fact that Palantir is basically an arm of the US government -- which has proven to be an enemy to the West and a thoroughly busted idiocracy -- just look at the sociopaths that lead that company. Alex Karp's public appearances are dystopian, and the guy comes across as a vile, self-involved crackhead that has no comprehension how reprehensible he is to 99% of the planet. Thiel is utterly deranged, and that goblin shouldn't come within a parsec of any influence or power.
- captainbland 8mo agoHonestly it's really weird that it was ever allowed to get this stage. Their leadership has been pretty "mask off" for a good while now.
- spiderfarmer 8mo agoThat's what you get when decisions are made by people who don't understand anything about the stuff they vote on.
- coldtea 8mo ago...but understand and appreciate bribes very well
- spiderfarmer 8mo agoYou only need to buy one or two to get it on the agenda, then everybody votes along party lines, on stuff they don't understand. It's not even that expensive.
- _joel 8mo agoJust ask Wes Streeting and Peter Mandelson.
- iso1631 8mo agoI wouldn't mind as much, but the bribes are absolutely tiny. Farage's "Reform" colleague Robert Jenrick took a £12k bribe to make his donor £30m. If you're going to be bribed, at least make it worthwhile. https://news.sky.com/story/the-1bn-development-and-the-tory-donor-the-robert-jenrick-controversy-explained-12014447 https://news.sky.com/story/the-1bn-development-and-the-tory-...
- mosura 8mo agoThe fact Alex Karp has any security clearance at all boggles the mind.
- KellyCriterion 8mo agoIsnt this required anyway for everybody doing military & gov contracts?
- wavefunction 8mo agoNot for Jared Kushner and I expect he's not the only one.
- kypro 8mo ago[flagged]
- xvector 8mo agoCould it be people dislike him because he enables anti-democratic capabilities like mass domestic surveillance, and enthusiastically supports an administration with little regard for the law?
- kypro 8mo agoWhat's the argument though, no security clearance for people who have the wrong politics? Also, Palantir only works with democratic countries for a reason... They might provide "anti-democratic capabilities", but by that definition any defence company or AI company wouldn't be liable for security clearance because they also provide capabilities which could be used in anti-democratic ways.
- xvector 8mo ago> Palantir only works with democratic countries Irrelevant when the administrations of these countries have zero regard for constitutional rights. > no security clearance for people who have the wrong politics? Yup, seems to be Karp's and the government's own opinion re Anthropic.
- einpoklum 8mo agoNote that "UK Security" and "safety of people in the UK" are very distinct things. But - exposure to whatever Palantir does is very likely bad for the second regardless of whether or not it's bad for the first.
- Joker_vD 8mo ago> Note that "UK Security" and "safety of people in the UK" are very distinct things. "Everything in the name of man, everything for the good of man!" — The 3rd Program of the CPSU, 1961. As the joke went, "and if you get to visit the Party Congress in Moscow, you will even get to see that very man!"
- tablets 8mo agoRelated meeting launching today about Palantir and the NHS - https://www.medact.org/event/briefing-launch-the-risks-of-palantir-in-the-nhs/ https://www.medact.org/event/briefing-launch-the-risks-of-pa...
- mentalgear 8mo agoThiel - the dark data lord - tries to get his fingers in any data source imaginable.
- graemep 8mo agoThe NHS is also heavily dependent on AWS.
- _joel 8mo agoAlso, LBC exclusive about £250 million contact that came about because of Mandelson breaking today. I mean if it wasn't obvious from the get go they're, well, dubious, given the grandson of Owsald Mosley is the UK CEO.
- _joel 8mo agoAlways interesting when you criticise Palantir on here you get downvoted, almost as if they have an "outreach department"
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- spot5010 8mo agoI feel like there’s a lesson to be learnt by reading Lord of the Rings and seeing what happens to Saruman and Denethor.
- mystraline 8mo agoYep, Palantir of NOTHANKS. (Play on words of Palantir of Orthanc)
- sifar 8mo agoThe corruption of LoTR is the saddest part here.
- iheartbiggpus 8mo agoWhy do the worst companies have the best names.
- dlev_pika 8mo agoFascism puts a heavy emphasis on aesthetics
- navane 8mo agoThey're better at selling ideas than having fleshed out ideas. One could say they sell before they build.
- octopoc 8mo agoHow do you square that with Germany’s miraculous economic recovery pre WII? Obviously they were doing something right. It took every other major power on the planet to take them down.
- navane 8mo agoBecause there was no off ramp. War economy never has. It looks great while it's going though. Year Military Spending (billions of RM) % of GDP 1933 0.7 1.0% 1934 4.0 5.1% 1935 5.5 7.0% 1936 10.3 12.2% 1937 11.5 12.7% 1938 17.2 17.2% 1939 38.0 23.0% Did they build their military to go to war? Or were they force to go to war as the nature of their economy forced them?
- bilbo0s 8mo agoItalian fascists did have fashion forward uniforms. So did the German Nazis back then now I think about it. Maybe there is something with cult-like thinking, fascist or not, where the aesthetics seduces more people into wanting to be a part of it all?
- hermitcrab 8mo agoNo doubt the smart uniforms, the rallies, the flags, the songs etc were a factor in many young men joining the SS.
- basisword 8mo agoWe're not a serious country anymore. We build very little. We control very little. Three years ago the war in Ukraine broke out causing the energy price crisis and the short term solution was the government paying a portion of everyone's bills. Three years later we're in the same situation again thanks to the US and Israel's warmongering. Are we prepared? No. What's the solution? Freezing the price caps and paying a portion of peoples bills.
- IshKebab 8mo agoYou say that as if a "serious" country would have a better solution. Which countries are "serious" in your view?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- happymellon 8mo agoIn my opinion (not OP), a serious country would look at it's basic national security risks, and work to minimise them. I'm not talking terrorism, far more basic than that. Food, Energy, Transport Communications, Manufacturing. Are you either able to be the provider of any of these if it really came down to it, or are you dependent on a single outside source? Most countries will be unable to fulfill all of these, but they can mitigate by not being dependent on a single source, maybe working together in a union. Russia has been an unreliable partner for energy for decades (if ever?), yet the UK yoked itself with them relying on their gas for energy instead of diversifying. We are doing it now but it has been far too late to mitigate the damage.
- roryirvine 8mo agoThat's not really true. The UK has run an open economy for almost 200 years and has long had one of the most diverse sets of trading arrangements of any country in the world. For domestic energy, it has never relied on Russia. Natural gas supplies are a roughly equal mix of domestic production, Norwegian pipeline imports, and LNG imports (primarily from the USA, but with no restriction on switching to other providers if needed). Yes, there was a spike in global LNG prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine but that was driven by other countries seeking to replace Russian imports. The same goes for the other areas you mentioned - food, transport, communications, and manufacturing. All have vast diversity of supply, with robust supply chains. None of them are remotely close to being dependent on a single external source.
- mhlansx 8mo agoThe history of Palantir: Christine Maxwell and Alan Wade found Chiliad, a database surveillance application that was used in the FBI. Then Alan Wade became CIO at the CIA. Then In-Q-Tel (CIA) co-founded Palantir with Thiel. Karp, who was at Haverford college with Epstein's neighbor Lutnick, became the philosophical ideologue for Palantir. With these overt and easily verifiable connections it is beyond belief that any European state would even consider using Palantir. The governments do not even work any better with all that surveillance software, they work worse than 20 years ago. So even the "we need it" argument is a fallacy.
- PeterStuer 8mo ago"it is beyond belief that any European state would even consider using Palantir". Germany's PM was formerly at BlackRock. What exactly do you find so hard to believe?
- qweiopqweiop 8mo agoCan someone explain why Palantir are seen as such a threat? My understanding is their product is a PowerBI++ and they don't host any user data themselves. Are people scared of backdoors?
- crimsoneer 8mo ago[flagged]
- zzrrt 8mo agoThis prompted me to read the Qanon Wikipedia page, and it is pretty funny that it also involves a right-wing South African software engineer warning us of the threat of global Satanists.
- vrganj 8mo agoTwo Reasons: 1) It holds deeply sensitive data and does so in the US. In times of increased mistrust of the US, many (including myself) see that as a risky choice. 2) Speaking of mistrust in America and American corporations, have you heard their execs talk? It's absolute cuckoo-town: > If they are not scared, they don’t wake up scared, they don’t go to bed scared, they don’t fear that the wrath of America will come down on them, they will attack us. They will attack us everywhere. Well, you've convinced me. I'm scared of America, I'm scared of American companies and I'm scared of your company in particular. Good job, I guess?
- qweiopqweiop 8mo agoAre you sure they hold sensitive data themselves though? My understanding was they integrate their tools with customers own data and don't have access to it themselves (at least in theory). Of course I agree that quote is insane and you can dislike them for political reasons, but I want to understand the technological fears and see if any are unfounded.
- iinnPP 8mo ago
- crimsoneer 8mo ago“Palantir does not need to own the data or even have stewardship. They can extract, transform and exploit the metadata to build their own rich picture.” Sorry, but this is full on into conspiracy theory here. Are we seriously arguing that Palantir are doing very much illegal analysis on air-gapped national security systems, and somehow exporting those and aggregating them? The exact same concerns could be articulated for Google/AWS/Azure, but nobody does because they would quite rightly be called out as conspiracy theorists.
- watwut 8mo ago> Are we seriously arguing that Palantir are doing very much illegal analysis on air-gapped national security systems, and somehow exporting those and aggregating them? Is there any reason to think they would not do something illegal? Or that they would be above exporting secret data?
- crimsoneer 8mo agoAt the risk of stating the obvious, this is a very profitable company that has spent 20-ish years working with intelligence agencies from a bunch of different countries, I find it hard to believe they'd just casually commit some incredibly serious crime without evidence beyond "well, they theoretically could".
- lyu07282 8mo ago> has spent 20-ish years working with intelligence agencies from a bunch of different countries This is supposed to count towards their integrity? There is no way your posts aren't satire, actually great job you almost convinced me lmao
- mikkupikku 8mo agoDon't be so naive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AG
- pjc50 8mo ago
- hermitcrab 8mo agoIt is a complete no-brainer that Thiel and his minions shouldn't be let anywhere near anything health or security related.
- Uhhrrr 8mo ago[flagged]
- s-y 8mo ago[flagged]
- Sharlin 8mo agoTrust must be earned. Thiel has earned none of that.
- datsci_est_2015 8mo agogestures broadly In fact, I would say the burden of proof is largely on those who would say that Palantir and Thiel can be trusted despite all of their actions and rhetoric.
- Uhhrrr 8mo agoIt's very fair to say that basically no one should be trusted with the large piles of data accumulated by various governments. But I would like to know why GP calls out Thiel specifically. Would they be just as mad at GovCloud?
- gspr 8mo agoBecause Thiel is plainly, and in his own words, a regressive threat to democracy.
- jacquesm 8mo agoI think there is a minimum standard of being informed before you can start to question others. Thiel is on the record in many ways that would justify the GPs statement. Yes, it is fair to say basically no one should be trusted with large piles of government data, but this holds more true for the the likes of Thiel who have indicated that they are willing to abuse such access.
- __MatrixMan__ 8mo agoObviously, just look at what the Palantir stones did to Saruman and Denethor. They're a corrupting force, both in the middle-earth case and in the our-earth case. Thiel has made no secret of his intent to use technology to dispense with that pesky democracy problem that billionaires have, and Palantir is pretty obviously his attempt to do just that. It's a reductio-ad-absurdum argument against listening to your citizens: You put it in the hands of a populist demagogue, the power to apply hyper-targeted pain to their enemies amplifies their darker tendencies, and when evil happens you say: "look, the people can't be trusted." Meanwhile, you use it to direct the pointy end of the state's stick towards people you don't like (because the demagogue is too lazy to actually use those hyper-targeting features themself) so you can interfere with democratic attempts to limit your power without bothering to pay for the pepper spray. Nobody in their right mind would want their government anywhere near it.
- Calavar 8mo agoI still don't understand why Theil and Karp decided to name their surveillance tech company after a device that is best known for being used by an evil dark lord to decieve and corrupt. It's like the Mitchell and Webb skit "are we the baddies" except they're the ones who designed the uniforms with skulls on them.
- 0x3f 8mo agoWell, it's not inherently any more evil than Fanta, is it?
- ljm 8mo agoI don't think you have to understand why they made that decision, you just have to understand who they are and what they believe in. Just have a look at what they talk about, and what they are quoted as saying. Then it will start to make sense.
- Manuel_D 8mo agoIt'd help make your point to actually share the ominous quotes you're referring to.
- gebalamariusz 8mo agoI see the UK government hasn't been on a good run lately. Google recently released the Cloud Threat Horizons H1 2026 report. A vulnerability in the OIDC trust policy can be exploited to gain admin access to AWS. The UK Government Digital Service was one of the affected organizations. Datadog found their IAM role misconfigured the same way.
- sschueller 8mo agoPalantir is dragging a small independent Swiss investigative newspaper to court because they reported[1] about Palantir getting the door slammed in their face in by several Swiss government agencies including the military over the last years. No one wants this turd of a company. [1] https://www.republik.ch/2026/02/18/how-tenaciously-palantir-courted-switzerland https://www.republik.ch/2026/02/18/how-tenaciously-palantir-...
- infinitewars 8mo agoNow with Golden Dome, Palantir is a global security threat not just a national one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dome_(missile_defense_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dome_(missile_defense_s...
- bigyabai 8mo agoPalantir has been integrated with global-scale ISR for several years, in the US.
- Alive-in-2025 8mo agogolden dome seems less useful by the day now that drones are the new unstoppable weapon of choice
- palmotea 8mo ago> golden dome seems less useful by the day now that drones are the new unstoppable weapon of choice Your thinking is too black-and-white. The emergence of a new technology (drones) does not necessarily make previous technologies (ballistic missiles) obsolete or a non-threat. What it means is the effective defensive system will need to be bigger and more capable. And, IIRC, the ballistic missiles are still the more effective weapon in Ukraine and Iran. Long-range drones are easier to intercept cheaper interception technologies are catching up with them: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/10/what-are-the-ukrainian-drone-interceptors-sent-to-counter-iranian-attacks/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/10/what-are-the-ukrain....
- catigula 8mo agoI gathered from this article that Palantir apparently has complete transparency into - a "profile" of - every UK citizen. This is glossed over and not really mentioned as an issue...
- BarbaraBessolo 8mo agoCheck Indiana lawsuit from DynamoEdge
- BarbaraBessolo 8mo agoCheck Indiana Lawsuit from DynamoEdge against Palantir and Andretti
- wang_pp8 8mo ago[dead]
- ZeroGravitas 8mo agoYou could probably do a series of parody 007 trailers and insert clips of a different Palantir leadership team member saying insane shit in interviews as the Bond villain in each one.
- ifwinterco 8mo agoThe "threat to UK security" is the whole reason palantir exists in the first place
- Alan_Writer 8mo agoThreat to UK security??? lol Is a threat to everyone on earth. Palantir is the real Skynet. They are developing everything they can to control and surveil the population at all levels. And the founder is evil, and he knows it. US-Israeli cybersecurity-AI-related infrastructure is crazy but not good for the world.