back to article NHS England considered using Palantir tech to manage strike disruption

The UK government considered using technology from Palantir – the US spy-tech firm – to help manage the National Health Service while it was disrupted by severe industrial action. But it ultimately opted to use spreadsheets instead. The need for local health sector workers to see their wages keep pace with inflation has driven …

  1. Howard Sway Silver badge

    OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

    According to the linked article : Peter Thiel claimed the NHS “makes people sick” and that health service reforms should “in theory, just rip the whole thing from the ground and start over”.

    Call me a bit overly cautious, but he doesn't sound like someone who it's wise to give half a billion quid of NHS money to, because there's a slight suspicion after reading his comments that he might have reasons for the project not to be enormously successful, given that he wants to obliterate the entire system. Not that it's any of his business anyway as a non-Brit, oh wait, the NHS probably will actually be his privately owned business if they carry on handing chunks of its work to him like this.........

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

      >the NHS probably will actually be his privately owned business

      the UK probably will actually be his privately owned business

      1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
        Unhappy

        Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

        How old is he now? Surely it's time for the man with the scythe to pay him a visit.

        1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
          Mushroom

          Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

          If he wants the NHS contract so badly, then make it a condition that he subjects himself to be treated under the NHS for any and all his ailments. And whilst we are at it, make that a condition for the PM and the Health Secretary. No going private.

          1. Terry 6 Silver badge

            Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

            Make them send their kids to local schools too, like the rest of us none of this elite private school bollocks.

          2. Spazturtle Silver badge

            Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

            "make that a condition for the PM and the Health Secretary. No going private."

            If you were a conservative MP would you really trust mainly labor voting NHS doctors and nurses not to sabotage your treatment? I wouldn't.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

              Probably not, since if I were, I wouldn't understand little things like 'oaths' and why some suckers actually stick to them.

            2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

              Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

              When Ronald Reagan was taken to George Washington University Hospital after being shot by John Hinkley...

              Reagan removed his oxygen mask to joke, "I hope you are all Republicans." The doctors and nurses laughed, and Giordano, a Democrat, replied, "Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans."

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ronald_Reagan

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Ronald_Reagan#cite_note-54

        2. Arthur the cat Silver badge

          Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

          How old is he now?

          A mere stripling at 55 according to Wikipedia.

          Surely it's time for the man with the scythe to pay him a visit.

          Possibly desirable, but in reality I'm more likely to be an earlier pick up than him. I'm sure Death, like Amazon drivers, has an ordered route to follow.

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: OpenDemocracy article is a little worrying

      Well he ought know something about that subject:

      https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/bucking-fda-peter-thiel-funds-patently-unethical-herpes-vaccine-trial/

      Never forget, American "conservatives" are ALWAYS projecting. Always.

  2. Handlebars

    this is not going to get managed nationally

    Local supervisors and managers rely on staff telling them they intended to take part in the strike. You'll be lucky if individual Trust rota databases are up to date enough to help manage disruption, no chance that national systems will be - must of them are not real-time.

  3. Woodnag

    Anonymized in accordance with the ICO's Anonymisation Code of Practice?

    NHS England said that patients would not be allowed to block the transfer of their data under the National Data Opt-outs programme since the data was due to be "anonymized in accordance with the Information Commissioner Office's Anonymisation Code of Practice before being released."

    Well, you can grab that here: https://ico.org.uk/media/1061/anonymisation-code.pdf

    Foreword: "This code of practice is not a security engineering manual, nor does it cover every anonymisation technique."

    It actually doesn't give a code of practice, but rather a newbie's guide to anonymisation. In Annex 3: "In this annex, we will set out a few examples of the anonymisation of data, to indicate the range of techniques available to the information manager."

    It advises the get out jail free card: "The DPA does not require anonymisation to be completely risk free".

    Nutshell: Do something, and if it fails you are not liable.

  4. MrGreen

    Control is a Drug to Government

    “NHS England considered using Palantir tech to manage strike disruption”.

    Translation:

    The government are using Palantir tech to track staff who went on strike.

    1. Bebu

      Re: Control is a Drug to Government

      "The government are using Palantir tech to track staff who went on strike."

      Always struck me as ironic that Tolkien's palantír, which Sauron opportunistically used to infiltrate Minas Tirith and Isengard, is the name chosen by a firm arguably involved in similar skulduggery.

      If I recall correctly it was some damn fool Took holding the Isengard palantír that put Sauron off his stroke :)

      1. Arthur the cat Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Control is a Drug to Government

        If I recall correctly it was some damn fool Took holding the Isengard palantír that put Sauron off his stroke

        No shortage of damn fools in the government, so maybe there's hope.

      2. ecofeco Silver badge

        Re: Control is a Drug to Government

        Still doesn't beat the financial company named Cerberus.

        Yeah, I'd trust money with those guys. /s

  5. s. pam
    Headmaster

    Back to paper, rock, stone and sticks

    That's all today's NHS is capable to be trusted with frankly!

    Go visit a ward sister's office at NHS Hillingdon -- their offices are stacked floor to ceiling with paper files of patient data. When the ward sister leaves their office their door is usually left ajar. Voila -- instant data breach :(

    1. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Re: Back to paper, rock, stone and sticks

      What do you expect a decade after David Cameron decided that there were too many admin staff?

      1. Terry 6 Silver badge
        Megaphone

        Re: Back to paper, rock, stone and sticks

        Ach, don't get me off on that one. Everybody looks down on "admin" staff. And wants to reduce the number in the cause of "efficiency". But the same great reformers who do this never reduce and indeed usually also manage to increase the amount of admin to be done (often among other things, to make sure the front line staff are being "efficient"). So who ends up doing the admin, the fu...ing frontline staff who should be out doing medicine, running schools, providing therapy and so forth.

        It's a message that never seems to get through. If you want to reduce admin staffing you have to reduce admin.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Paranoia is the new paranoia

    Would it be beyond the limits of paranoia to assume anything typed into this “federated data platform” goes straight back to the mothership. Coincidentally, this just popped-up on streaming:

    ‘Rabbit Hole’

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5822112/

    See also

    ‘Person of Interest’

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839578/

    See also

    ‘Homecoming’

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7008682/

    “All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was."

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