The Just Algorithms Action Group (JAAG) is a non-profit group working for greater social justice in Artificial Intelligence and algorithmic systems.
That’s why we are extremely concerned at the government’s plans for a Federated Data Platform (FDP) for NHS health data.
We are worried about the lack of transparency in the government’s proposals. In particular,
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we’re not convinced that there will be proper consent and safeguards to govern how patients’ data will be used and protected,
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we think it unwise to lock this valuable data set into a system controlled by a monopoly business, and
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we believe that the £480m could be more effectively spent on direct patient care.
As if this wasn’t enough, yesterday the government announced that that they have awarded the lucrative contract to run the FDP – the biggest IT contract in the health service’s history – to Palantir, a US company.
It’s already worrying that the intimate health data of millions of UK citizens will be in the control of a company outside the UK.
What’s even more alarming is that Palantir have a track record that doesn’t inspire confidence in their ability to handle sensitive health information ethically. Palantir is known for its work with intelligence and military agencies in the US, UK and elsewhere, such as the CIA.
The firm gained a foothold in the NHS in March 2020 when, at the government’s invitation, it began analysing huge amounts of health service data to help with the official response to the unfolding Covid pandemic’. Palantir charged the government only a nominal £1 fee.
The government say that: “… there will be clear rules and auditability covering who can access this data, what they can see, and what they can do. …. The provider of the software will not … be permitted to access, use or share it for their own purposes”. A separate provider has been given a contract for ‘Privacy Enhancing Technology’, “to enhance the security of data used in the FDP”. An advisory group of health and care stakeholders and patients will help to shape how the FDP is implemented.
However, JAAG shares the concerns expressed by many others about privacy, ethics and human rights:
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The Doctors’ Association UK is concerned that “Basic issues of informed consent are being ignored, and this deal could lead to a loss of privacy and seriously erode patient trust.”
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The British Medical Association recently told the then health secretary, Steve Barclay it had serious concerns involving privacy and ethics, about both the FDP and Palantir in particular.
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In 2020, Amnesty International expressed concern at Palantir’s ‘highly questionable’ human rights record, saying “The UK public have a right to know what sort of company is being granted unprecedented access to their health data records, and precisely what Palantir intends to do with it.”
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David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, has said that Palantir’s close relationship with the CIA meant that “it is the wrong company to put in charge of our precious data resource. Even if it behaved perfectly, nobody would trust it,” he told the House of Commons.
Further information
Government: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-11-21/hcws57
https://www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/palantir-last-chance-petition/
