6 ms·
Palantir extends reach into British state as gets access to sensitive FCA data
- themafia 7mo ago> Palantir has previously defended its work, saying it has led to about 99,000 extra operations being scheduled in the NHS No hard evidence of this was provided or is readily available. > helped UK police tackle domestic violence And precisely how was this done? > Palantir will have to destroy data after completion of the contract Contractual obligations that are not practically enforceable will not be honored. I don't think these individual administrative agencies have the acumen necessary to correctly negotiate these contracts.
- remarkEon 7mo ago>And precisely how was this done? Can't find the article atm, but it was basically pre-crime from Minority Report (without the pre-cogs, obviously). They looked at large datasets and built a predictive model, correlating things like race and prior criminal history to infer who was more likely to re-offend. At scale, this works. Ethical issues abound, however.
- themafia 7mo ago> At scale, this works. We're going to need a definition of "works." The false positive rate seems to be notable since those stories readily percolate into media whenever these schemes are implemented and the damage done from those is absolutely massive. The idea that criminals are likely to re-offend is not new. What to do about this has always been the challenge. Simply over policing this segment is not any type of solution. Unless, of course, you are invested in the "private prison" industry.
- remarkEon 7mo ago> Simply over policing this segment is not any type of solution. Just curious, why? This seems like the obvious, lowest cost solution. Rates of recidivism are known data points, and crime in most American cities is actually committed by a very, very small population of repeat offenders. Seems like there is much upside to simply monitoring the situation.
- parineum 7mo ago> No hard evidence of this was provided or is readily available. That's not their job, that's the governments' job. So much of this (the article and your comment) is putting so much on Palantir when they are just doing the job asked of them. They don't work for the people, the government does.
- schubidubiduba 7mo agoThey likely bribed someone in the government to get that contract though. Regardless, it is ridiculous to absolve corporations and the people running them from all accountability, just because their aim is ever more money. In fact, that should make you criticize them more, not less.
- parineum 7mo ago> They likely bribed someone in the government to get that contract though. No hard evidence of this was provided or is readily available.
- Natfan 7mo agohttps://hansard.parliament.uk/search?searchTerm=palantir https://hansard.parliament.uk/search?searchTerm=palantir
- drtgh 7mo ago> [Palantir] The Miami-based company, co-founded by the billionaire Donald Trump donor Peter Thiel And backed by In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital (CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency of the US). https://fortune.com/2025/07/29/in-q-tel-cia-venture-capital-palantir-anduril/ https://fortune.com/2025/07/29/in-q-tel-cia-venture-capital-...
- notepad0x90 7mo agoEven google was funded by In-Q-Tel.
- philipallstar 7mo agoNot really surprising given it was founded post-9/11 to stop another 9/11.
- 4jasg1k 7mo agoEpstein's friends who had appointments in the WTC on 9/11 mysteriously canceled last minute or had other excuses. - Lutnick, whose whole Cantor & Fitzgerald was obliterated, brought his son to school after a last minute "argument with his wife". - Sarah Ferguson was "stuck in traffic" and late. - Michael Jackson "overslept". There is another one whom I don't remember. Maybe the Bayesians here can calculate the probability using a control group of all well connected people who miraculously survived. There aren't that many. Epstein and Maxwell's other friends of course were connected to funding Palantir.
- therobots927 7mo ago[flagged]
- unfortunatelyno 7mo ago[dead]
- crimsoneer 7mo agoWhat's he done that's so evil...?
- therobots927 7mo ago[flagged]
- wavefunction 7mo agoHe joked about Palantir killing people. I know Israel and the US have been using some sort of Palantir system for target designation and that speaks for itself.
- TheOtherHobbes 7mo agoPalantir's Maven AI targeting system misidentified an Iranian girl's school as a legitimate military target, killing around 170 innocent children.
- chrisjj 7mo agoCitation is desirable here.
- Oarch 7mo agoAs a Brit, I've never had the sense the UK (specifically the City of London) has any genuine interest in tackling money laundering. I suspect our economy is structurally reliant upon us being extremely good at it.
- joe_mamba 7mo agoIsn't the whole point of the City of London, to be a legal money laundering economic zone, that brings banks, corporations, money and jobs to the UK?
- echelon_musk 7mo agoPretty much, yes.
- jordanb 7mo agoSpecifically the Eurodollar is the main reason for the City of London to exist. Eurodollars are US dollar deposits at European banks. Originally these were used as a way to give the Soviet Union access to the dollar markets through French banks, but eventually it became a way for basically anyone to participate in dollar exchange who can't have a US bank account. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurodollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurodollar
- Lio 7mo agoReally? What are you basing that on? Having worked at FinTechs and in finance in general that doesn't ring true at all. The FCA definitely takes anti-money laundering checks quite seriously. e.g. (off the top of my head) NatWest were fined £264 million for AML breaches. I'm no expert by any means but if I wanted to flout the rules I'd definitely consider a few other juristictions before the City.
- londons_explore 7mo agoAML tech is so primitive, it almost looks like it's designed that anyone 'in the know' will know how to not be detected. Eg. Most AML checks are done because someone wrote some triggering keyword in the payment reference field. Do we honestly think a criminal mastermind won't manage to come up with something else to write there?
- OrangePilled 7mo agoPreviously: "US to embed Palantir AI across military" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47471655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47471655 "The singularity".
- xvxvx 7mo agoAre we seeing the beginning of super-corporations that will supersede nation states?
- cwnyth 7mo agoYou should read Jennifer Government.
- beeburrt 7mo agoIsn't that what we've been being led into? As they spoke of "One world order" since Bush Sr. If not earlier. One world guv with the 5g brain-influencing towers already in place and the nano tech already inside of us. How many of us emit a MAC address already? To answer your question, more like the beginning of the end. It's what we're not seeing...
- 0x3f 7mo agoIt's quite hard to tell if this is satire. So... good job? Maybe?
- overvale 7mo agoFeelings about Palantir aside, this is a really misleading headline. The FCA has hired Palantir to "investigate the watchdog’s internal intelligence data", which presumably requires Palantir to have access to that sensitive data. Saying that Palantir is "reaching" into the British state, and then having the article image be "billionaire Donald Trump donor Peter Thiel" literally holding a wad of cash is... not exactly a high standard of reportage.
- crimsoneer 7mo agoGuardian doing clickbaity headline specifically to infuriate their readers, I am shoketh
- sunrunner 7mo ago> literally holding a wad of cash And that's the most believable thing in the image. From the banknotes, to the rather visible outline on Thiel himself, to what I can only describe as an out-of-focus picture of the supernatural entity from Still Wakes the Deep.
- surcap526 7mo ago[dead]
- meffmadd 7mo agoGenuine question to people more knowledgeable: Why are politicians/technocrats doing this? Also generally speaking e.g. in relation to chat control and so on. Do they think this is what the people actually want because of lobbying or are they aware and believe they know better? Is it literally just corruption? Or are there actual benefits and we are just in the HN bubble where most people think its a bad idea?
- junto 7mo agoInformation is power. Power is leverage. Leverage is easily applied to corrupt people. Politicians are corrupt. Quod erat demonstrandum
- Loughla 7mo agoI don't think politicians across the board are corrupt. I think they're just surrounded by syncophants and special interest. Also the old absolute power corrupts, absolutely sort of thing. I can't be convinced people go into politics twiddling their mustaches like a cartoon villain. I think that they go into it either to genuinely help, or because they like the attention. Then the system surrounds then with people who either take small bites of their ethics, or agree with anything for the chance to be powerful as well. Is there a solution? I'm not sure there is.
- r5298Jh 7mo agoA lot is facilitated by the Epstein elites. Lord Mandelson is a long time Epstein friend and so is Thiel. Mandelson facilitated several UK deals: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/04/peter-mandelson-palantir-jeffrey-epstein-government https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/04/peter-mande... I'm unsure why MI6, who is eminently familiar with the Maxwell spy family, allows this. So perhaps they are in on it.
- TheOtherHobbes 7mo agohttps://www.opendemocracy.net/en/palantir-mi6-spymaster-cabinet-office-contract-brexit-john-sawers/ https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/palantir-mi6-spymaster-cabi...
- jandom 7mo agoIt’s likely an impossible choice, between inept big four consultancy groups (that charge $$$, deliver little, and run everything through manual excel entry) vs palantir who likely will deliver results. I have no love for Palantir but at least they’re competent. During covid, palantir had to elbow its way to sell to the UK govt and replaced dilapidated “solutions” from the big four.
- 0x3f 7mo agoIt's just the UK state in it's classic rut/local minima. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be solved by simultaneously (a) paying MPs a lot more, and (b) banning all other forms of income. As it is, being an MP is a total dead end for anyone actually talented at getting things done. Even a middling technical understanding of things precludes getting seduced by Deloitte.
- WatchDog 7mo ago> Palantir [...] gets access to sensitive FCA data. Is this the right characterization? Is Palantir being given access to the data(to do with what they like), or is Palantir software being deployed in the customer private cloud environment? I am under the impression that Palantir is typically deployed on-premise, or in a private cloud, where the customer can ensure that the data remains sovereign. Particularly in a military setting, it would be deployed in an airgapped or highly controlled network.
- lmm 7mo ago> I am under the impression that Palantir is typically deployed on-premise, or in a private cloud, where the customer can ensure that the data remains sovereign. I'll believe that when I see a thorough audit report. But anyone competent to do that wouldn't be buying Palantir in the first place.
- ratrace 7mo ago[dead]
- TrackerFF 7mo agoI work in the maritime domain for the Norwegian gov., where we've had a couple of demos. AFAIK, there's only one agency here that uses Palantir software - the customs service - and that's not any secret info. But we frequently work with people from adjacent fields (military, law enforcement, aviation, other maritime, etc.), basically the usual suspects as far as Palantir clients go. My observation has been that there's no strong push or even desire to become a customer. The people I've talked with have either been outright unimpressed, or have already similar systems they've rolled out themselves. From the demos we've had, it seemed to me that Palantir can do well in countries where all the potential clients are isolated from each others (disorganized even), and do not have and good means of sharing data / communicating with each others. There's a lot of hype, myth even, around what their tools do - and I can understand why many are just saying "no thanks" when they come knocking. It is sort of underwhelming.
- msy 7mo agoDon't worry, they'll buy your boss's boss nice dinners and box seats at sports games until they see the light.
- nradov 7mo agoOrganizations that are already running well with solid operational processes and data governance won't gain a huge benefit from Palantir. They can only add a lot of value in organizations full of lazy, incompetent people. This describes many government agencies. But not all.
- jauntywundrkind 7mo agoAs if being Palantir isn't bad enough, the UK arm is headed by Louis Mosley. Who likes to go on tv wearing black, like is grandad Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists. https://www.thenational.scot/news/25759699.palantir-uk-boss-louis-mosley/ https://www.thenational.scot/news/25759699.palantir-uk-boss-... It's beyond alarming seeing this company be allowed in the door.