Member of parliament wants clarification about the use of controversial Palantir at Fieldlab Zuid6

Member of parliament Lisa van Ginneken of D66 has asked parliamentary questions about the collaboration with the controversial data company Palantir at Fieldlabs. Van Ginneken wants to know from the minister, among other things, what data Palantir had access to in the collaboration with Fieldlab Zuid6.

In a letter Van Ginneken asks the outgoing Minister of Justice and Security Ferd Grapperhaus for clarification about who Palantir has signed a contract with for the assignment. The D66 member also wants to know whether a Data Protection Impact Analysis has been performed and to which information the company has access.

Van Ginneken also wants to know whether the minister was aware of Palantir’s reputation before the contract was concluded. Palantir was discredited several times. For example, the company’s software is used in the United States by the immigration service to track down undocumented migrants. Palantir also has ties to Cambridge Analytica.

D66’s parliamentary questions are a response to a blog and a video that Palantir published in February. In the video, the company says it has used “publicly accessible sources, such as demographic and economic information, data on tourism and traffic and covid-19 data from RIVM”. According to the company, the datasets are used to request real-time information about, for example, an outbreak of the virus.