NYC Hospital System Drops Palantir, UK NHS Faces Data Risks

0:00On March 26th, New York City's public hospital system is cutting ties with Palantir, the data analytics firm facing heat over privacy issues. The contract, used mainly to recover insurance payments, expires this October, and officials say they're switching to fully in-house tools with no data handover. Dr. Mitchell Katz, head of the system, told City Council last week there's a strict barrier keeping patient info from reaching immigration, enforcement, and no problems ever came up. Palantir called some reports inaccurate, but didn't give details. Activists from nursing unions, immigrant rights groups, and others pushed hard through a campaign called Purge Palantir, and they're hailing this as a big win against the company's government work. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Palantir is growing fast in the UK despite pushback. It has a $330 million deal with the National Health Service for data tools, but roll out as slow due to worries about privacy and potential misuse even as leaders push to speed it up.

1:03The firm also just landed a contract with the UK's financial watchdog to fight crime, sparking calls from lawmakers for a review. Campaigns there hope New York's move inspires the health service to drop Palantir too, amid ongoing debates over data risks in an AI age.