Last week, activists in Truro joined an international day of action to ‘Say NO to Palantir in our NHS’. Around 10 protesters handed leaflets to passers-by, patients, and staff members outside of Truro Health Centre.

The campaign, led by human rights group Amnesty International, is pushing all NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards (ICB) to refuse to use Palantir’s technology. Palantir currently plays a central role in the NHS’s £330 million Federated Data Platform (FDP) where data can be stored and analysed by artificial intelligence. The contract between NHS England and Palantir is due for renewal in February 2027.

Jennifer Forbes, Chairperson of Your Party, said at the protest:

“We are all quite concerned about Palantir and its role in the NHS.

“We’re worried on two fronts. Firstly, data – nobody’s keen on having their data sold and using any of our health data to sell stuff to us or exploit us is abhorrent. I don’t want to see any privatisation in our NHS and I certainly don’t want to see our data misused in that kind of way, which I think they [Palantir] have massive potential to do- why else would they want it?

“Our second point of issue with Palantir is the ethical concerns. It is known to have links with operations that we wouldn’t find ethical, particularly with Gaza and everything that’s happened there. It shouldn’t be anywhere near our NHS.

“I want the NHS to go back to the vision it was created for – not about profit motive. This is a really good Health Park here in Truro, but it is still difficult to get appointments. Anywhere that profit motive comes before services, we get less. There are so many knock-on impacts of not funding the NHS properly, and the privatisation just exacerbates them.”

For his part, Chair of the firm Peter Thiel has previously advocated for the privatisation of the NHS. When asked about the local authorities’ role in the dispute, Forbes stated:

“Cornwall Council has shown itself to not be very proactive on making ethical decisions when it comes to issues around Gaza. However, there is a way for local councils to influence this issue because of the way the Integrated Care Board has evolved- the council has got direct impact on how healthcare is delivered.

“I feel like they should be using all the weight they have to say that they don’t want Palantir in Cornwall. So absolutely, I’d like to hear someone speaking up from the council.”

In July, Members of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Select Committee tabled an early day motion in Parliament calling for an end to the relationship with Palantir, in favour of an ‘open and sovereign alternative’. This follows pressure from the British Medical Association, which has urged union members to limit engagement with the FDP.

Palantir is one of the world’s most advanced data-mining companies, and its AI technologies have drawn condemnation for their use by the Israeli Defence Forces to support rapid identification and analysis of bombing targets in Gaza during a genocide.

Their prominence in the defence sector has also been seen in Britain. In 2025, the Ministry of Defence entered a £1.5bn strategic partnership with Palantir. This includes harnessing AI technology to ‘accelerate decision making’ throughout the ‘kill chain’, providing military commanders with “faster options for attacking an enemy target.”

Other major controversies have come from Palantir’s implementation in a domestic context. Palantir technology has been used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to surveil migrants in American cities. This has included the use of medical records to track down and detain people they deem to be “illegal immigrants”.

The campaigners’ target of Truro Health Park was not chosen because of the specific actions of NHS Cornwall Foundation Trust or Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust, but as part of a wider campaign to push the company out of the Health Service nationally.

Image Via: Cobblestone Media.