[HN Gopher] New York City hospitals drop Palantir as controversi...
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New York City hospitals drop Palantir as controversial AI firm
expands in UK
Author : chrisjj
Score : 167 points
Date : 2026-03-26 20:35 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| tombert wrote:
| It seems like letting a company like Palantir anywhere near
| private medical data is a pretty bad idea. I am happy NYC is
| doing this.
| Manuel_D wrote:
| Palantir builds software that customers use to work with their
| own data. Custody of the data remains with the customer.
|
| This is like saying a hospital that uses Excel is handing over
| data to Microsoft.
| gullies wrote:
| I heard that they lock data by using proprietary formats.
| MSFT does not do that.
| easterncalculus wrote:
| They literally did. XLS was proprietary until Microsoft
| completely cornered the spreadsheet software market.
| vovavili wrote:
| Locking users behind proprietary data formats is
| _literally_ the sole point of Microsoft Office.
| crimsoneer wrote:
| They very much do not, you can import/export in pretty much
| any format you want and they've got a well documented sdk.
|
| https://www.palantir.com/docs/foundry/ontology-sdk/python-
| os...
| pvtmert wrote:
| while I understand the meaning here, modern Excel does
| handover data to Microsoft (via Copilot)...
| OJFord wrote:
| And 365 (I'm sure there is an on-premises version, but when
| not).
| Manuel_D wrote:
| Users choose whether to use Copilot, and are free to
| decline it's use.
| auxiliarymoose wrote:
| How do I decline it?? I keep clicking no, hide, not
| interested, cancel, etc. but it keeps showing up and
| activating...if I had a nickel for every time I clicked
| it on accident in Azure because a layout shift moved it
| under my mouse when trying to press a button I would have
| a lot of nickels. It even showed up as an app on my phone
| because I guess the Office 365 entry got hijacked...
| mc32 wrote:
| Your Entra Admin like your Google workspace admin can
| publish or remove features from user availability.
| guywithahat wrote:
| In some regards I'd almost rather Palantir runs it, since the
| DoW would force them to implement very strict data isolation
| features which hospitals could then get for free. I wouldn't
| imagine Epic Healthcare Systems would be forced to isolate
| data so aggressively.
|
| That said I also recognize the moral dilemma and understand
| why they'd pull out. Frankly I'm surprised they did much work
| with hospitals at all
| nradov wrote:
| Most Epic products aggressively isolate data. The majority
| of instances are run on-premises, and even those hosted on
| cloud platforms are single-tenant. They have a good record
| for data security and privacy; afaik all Epic data breaches
| were actually caused by infiltration of other customer
| systems.
| foxes wrote:
| Do you work for palantir?
| Manuel_D wrote:
| No, but I am curious why this one company gets some much
| hate. I can get being politically opposed to the
| conservative politics of some of its founders, but the vast
| majority of conservative-founded companies don't get nearly
| as much criticism. A lot of it is seriously borderline
| Q-anon levels of conspiratorial talk. Just look at the
| comment in this thread insinuating that Peter Thiel is
| going to assassinate people with orbital weapons.
| tombert wrote:
| Alex Karp is a deeply unlikable human who talks about how
| his software is used to kill people, and that he wants to
| drop a lot of fentanyl-laced urine across all the
| negative reporters.
| fsflover wrote:
| Microsoft can't guarantee data sovereignty - OVHcloud says
| 'We told you so' (theregister.com)
|
| 76 points by fauigerzigerk 6 months ago | 7 comments
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45061153
| Lucasoato wrote:
| This isn't accurate, Palantir business model includes mass
| surveillance for military/security purposes; if a company is
| concerned with privacy should think twice before handling it
| to Palantir, even if with all the assurances they might give
| in terms of data governance.
| willis936 wrote:
| Why are so many entities dealing with Palantir? They are a poison
| pill for customers.
| 0x3f wrote:
| They don't have in-house talent to implement what they want.
| The same reasons they used to hire Deloitte/EY/KPMG/PwC.
| Palantir is one rung up from those places when it comes to
| talent/ability to deliver.
| senkora wrote:
| +1. Think of it like a consulting shop that can deliver
| customized software instead of just slide decks and excel
| workbooks.
| paxys wrote:
| Palantir is a glorified IT consulting company. You tell them "I
| want a system to manage patient records" and they will dispatch
| a team of engineers fresh out of college to build it for you
| while charging top dollar. They are able to get government &
| military contracts because of lobbying and influence, but
| generally everything you see about them online is marketing.
| OJFord wrote:
| Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting company...
| nradov wrote:
| Which customers? Outside of the HN bubble, very few consumers
| know or care which entities are using Palantir.
| varispeed wrote:
| "controversial"
|
| Everyone knows what's going on, but also everyone is too afraid
| to stand up for some reason.
| Manuel_D wrote:
| What is going on?
| user3939382 wrote:
| NYC schools just passed some AI guidelines as well. No training
| on student PII data, no final grades, etc. Unfortunately that's a
| pinprick for the behemoth.
| payphonefiend wrote:
| Their main product is just consulting and PowerBI but for
| government. So much hysteria online!
| danny_codes wrote:
| Their CEO is a crazy person who seemingly wants to tear down
| democracy
| newfriend wrote:
| Wants to tear down democracy = "doesn't support my chosen
| political party"
| danny_codes wrote:
| Thiel is pro-dictatorship as near as one can tell. Karp
| probably isn't sane enough to evaluate
| llm_nerd wrote:
| Hysteria? Have you listened to Karp? Palantir pushes some
| pretty shit-tier BI noise to clueless executives (it's actually
| uproarious the mythology that has built around that company),
| and this weird creep talks like they're the masters of the
| universe.
|
| Thiel is another incredibly bizarre creep, and he sits as the
| chairman of the board. Both are _very_ tightly associated with
| the Trump crime syndicate and the US government, which
| increasingly is the world 's #1 threat, and should be treated
| as equally dangerous.
| payphonefiend wrote:
| If you think that is the world's #1 threat then I have a
| bridge to sell you. Also Palantir's mythology is a nice
| whimsical touch, it has aura.
| infinitewars wrote:
| J.D. Vance and Peter Thiel's Palantir is reportedly getting the
| software contract for control of Golden Dome, an orbital weapon
| system built by Elon Musk.
|
| A weapon system capable of targeting any person on Earth
| controlled by a mass surveillance company. Wonderful.
| paxys wrote:
| I'd be concerned if any of the parties involved were halfway
| competent. This is a grift for taxpayer dollars, nothing more.
| nottorp wrote:
| Palantir is an AI firm now? Thought it was a data
| collection/spyware firm.
| easterncalculus wrote:
| spyware
|
| Why is Palantir a spyware company, but Snowflake or Databricks
| are not? "Spyware" has an actual definition, and there are real
| companies that sell it, like Pegasus. It's not some catch-all
| term for what people call "evil".
| natebc wrote:
| If they're not a spyware company then they really super duper
| picked the wrong name. Maybe they were just going for evil,
| in which case ... well I'm glad NYC hospitals have dropped
| them and I hope many, many more companies and organizations
| choose the same path.
| ktokarev wrote:
| when private company is deeply embedded in public health systems
| it is just dangerous
| cat-turner wrote:
| Palantir can install a data backdoor at anytime with their
| software. If you haven't noticed that businesses are openly
| violating data privacy you aren't paying attention. I don't have
| trust in our judicial system if Trump pardons criminals everyday.
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