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#BREAKING: Amnesty raise concerns over #Palantir’s human rights record
in advance of the direct listing of #PalantirTechnologies, on the New York Stock Exchange tmw.
READ REPORT: Failing to Do Right: The Urgent Need for Palantir to Respect Human Rightshttps://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/palantirs-contracts-with-ice-raise-human-rights-concerns-around-direct-listing …
“We could close our eyes & pretend that contrary to all the evidence, #Palantir is a rights-respecting company or we can call this façade what it is: another company placing profit over people, no matter the human cost.” Michael Kleinman, @amnestyusa on #PalantirTechnologies.pic.twitter.com/R9piwPKxup
This isn't the first time @amnesty have raised concerns.
In May, they warned: “The shadowy data-mining firm #Palantir, whose technology has powered some of the most nefarious immigration abuses, is now collecting troves of health data about all of us.”https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/21/why-are-we-trusting-company-with-ties-ice-intelligence-agencies-collect-our-health-information/ …
Then in July, @amnesty published this CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT article revealing how - working with govts - Big Tech firms are using the #COVID19 crisis to obliterate a last frontier of our privacy: our biological selves
"Bio-invasive surveillance capitalism"https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/will-the-coronavirus-pandemic-obliterate-a-last-frontier-in-our-privacy-our-biological-selves/ …
In March, @BorisJohnson met big tech firms to discuss #COVID response. "The govt then quietly granted access to millions of UK health data records to Amazon, Microsoft, Google & Palantir to build a #Covid Datastore, aggregating data from multiple sources, including testing data."pic.twitter.com/yDe6NpT3yB
In April #Palantir won a contract to run the #COVID digital platform for the NHS alongside #FacultyAI
Both companies have links to #CambridgeAnalytica
At the SAME TIME, they also won a $7.5m contract to build the digital platform for US Health Dept (HHS)pic.twitter.com/fufZzq7fwx
On 8 July, the UK govt sidelined SAGE in favour of the secretive Joint Biosecurity Centre headed by a senior spy.
On 22 July Downing St took control of data
On 14 July, the Trump admin ordered hospitals to send all #COVID data to HHS Protect, run by #Palantir
Notice a pattern?pic.twitter.com/PdjEbRXBmX
Palantir was awarded the NHS & HHS #COVID19 contracts without competitive tender
We only KNOW about these contracts because of Freedom of Information lawsuits against the US & UK govts
They expose the fact that Palantir appear to be part of a single, coordinated US-UK strategy.pic.twitter.com/AQh4Z2NsXT
Palantir aren't just running the UK & US digital platforms
They're doing the same for dozens - perhaps scores - of govts around the world
#Palantir often offer it for free
The initial £1 UK contract soon morphed into one for £1 million
But its the data that is worth billions!pic.twitter.com/xTZIIzqRS0
In July, 30+ members of Congress called for greater transparency on #Palantir's use of data
In the UK, the companies running the platform for the NHS (the country's MOST trusted brand) have links with #CambridgeAnalytica (the country's LEAST trusted brand), but no MPs speak out.pic.twitter.com/lCfMKmE3PT
We already know that Big Tech mine & sell our data, but the new frontier lies not in our consumer behaviour, but in our biological selves. As James Watson, who discovered the structure of DNA, said: Our fates lie in our genes and not in the stars. But who controls that fate?pic.twitter.com/JY4otKWye9
#Palantir's #PeterThiel is a right-wing billionaire with reported associations with the far-right
He donated $1m to the "Defeat Crooked Hillary" campaign backed by Robert Mercer & overseen by Steve Bannon.
Mercer & Bannon were the main kingpins behind #CambridgeAnalytica.pic.twitter.com/Bs1LZyOTIp
According to @reason, #PeterThiel is "a radical right-winger" and "the wealthiest ally of the new conservative nationalist movement", "connected, via friendship, venture capital and at least some ideological affinity" with far-right blogger, Curtis Yarvin.https://reason.com/2020/08/02/wait-wasnt-peter-thiel-a-libertarian/ …
In 2016, #PeterThiel hosted former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos and white supremacist Curtis Yarvin.
Yarvin wrote of Thiel, he is “fully enlightened, just plays it very carefully.” #Palantir #PalantirTechnologies #PalantirPlan #Trump #COVID19https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8724895/Peter-Thiel-cozied-alt-right-threw-support-Trump-2016.html …
As well as links to the far-right & to #CambridgeAnalytica,
#PeterThiel's big interest is in genetics
He has backed DNA-testing/editing & genetic engineering startups as well as numerous life sciences companies such as Halcyon Molecular, Pathway Genomics, Juvenesence, Imatato.pic.twitter.com/0C7doERORm
“The mushroom-like growth of institutes & research programs, financed by 'visionary philanthropists' dreaming of a positive eugenics for the 21st century. Among the most prominent is funded by Peter Thiel.” Profs Rose, 2014 "Positive eugenics" is key to understanding the ‘plan’.pic.twitter.com/Ecml9xHswa
Eugenics - the idea of "breeding out” disease & so-called undesirable traits from a population - was all the rage until Hitler Even the Nazis distinguished btw "negative eugenics" (discouraging the "inferior" from breeding) & "positive eugenics" (encouraging the "fit" to breed).pic.twitter.com/5uI9kNR9tL
After WWII, eugenics didn’t go away The discovery of the DNA double helix in 1953, gave rise to modern molecular biology & genetic engineering The 1990 Human Genome Project mapped all the genes of the human genome Gene editing = altering human genomes.pic.twitter.com/z1xRn9eJX1
Vox
Most genome editing is limited to somatic cells & affect only certain tissues & aren't passed from one generation to the next But germline genome editing could pass changes to future generations & even could even help reshape humans & our society The idea is v attactive to somepic.twitter.com/otPeL5J3gT
Advances in genetics - incldg epigentics - have resulted in big advances in diagnosis, treatment of & prevention of disease It has HUGE potential social & cost benefits, not just in medicine But we've seen the movie! We know genetics can get out of handpic.twitter.com/3GeLTqTuz5
Until now, the clearest indication that the govt might have big aspirations in this direction was Cummings' blog
Then last Saturday (!), @MattHancock launched #GenomeUK, a major new Genomic Healthcare Strategy for the UK
It didn't get much news coverage.https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1309788592919793665 …
An academic source says "Hancock's announcement is a statement of intent & suggests genome research might be put at the heart of their programme for govt" Hancock today: "The way that we do healthcare is completely changing, & we've got to embrace that"https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1312793204178198528 …
"The UK offers companies...active life sciences & increasingly expanding access to rich longitudinal data from the NHS’s 65 million patients."
(Dept of Trade/NHS "invitation to invest")
You can opt out but anonymous data will still be shared
Connected?
https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/ …pic.twitter.com/SLCBljKxLG
“The private data of millions of Dutch people in the #coronavirus systems of the GGD are not secure.
Large-scale illegal trade takes place in residential addresses, 06 numbers &BSNs, originating from the systems for testing & source & contact research.”https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5210644/handel-gegevens-nederlanders-ggd-systemen-database-coronit-hpzone …
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