Palantir: Growing resistance to US big data software for the police

In March, the Federal Council called for the "Gotham" software from the US company Palantir to be used nationwide as an interim solution for the "cross-procedural search and analysis platform" (VeRA) developed in Bavaria. However, several federal states have objected, meaning that this approach is unlikely to come to fruition.

Hamburg in particular has spoken out in the state chamber in favor of a sovereign solution for automated data analysis from Europe, which "excludes the use of products from the market-leading US provider Palantir". The current overall geopolitical situation requires increasing European autonomy and independence in the security sector.

A European solution?

It must be ensured that the capability of the planned big data platform "as a key element of the future digital security infrastructure in terms of its reliable availability and legal conformity is not subject to any structural influence by foreign states", continued Hamburg's Finance Senator Andreas Dressel (SPD). Impairments or even the discontinuation of manufacturer support and data leaks can be ruled out.

Bremen's representative to the federal government, Olaf Joachim (SPD), emphasized that the implementation of a joint data warehouse for information processing and an interim solution for this should "not lead to surveillance without suspicion". In particular, especially sensitive personal information such as health data should "not be used without limits and without outlining factual requirements".

A corresponding motion by Hamburg, which was supported by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia, fell short of the required majority, according to the BR. Otherwise, the no to Palantir would have been included in the resolution, which Saxony-Anhalt, Bavaria, Berlin and Hesse pushed for. However, other federal states had also stated that they did not intend to equip their police authorities with Palantir software.

"Key company in the surveillance industry"

Like the HessenData solution and the increasingly costly system for cross-database analysis and evaluation (DAR) of the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) police, VeRA is based on Gotham from Palantir. The company has been criticized as a "key company in the surveillance industry".

"Palantir has been highly controversial for years for several reasons", Member of the Bundestag Konstantin von Notz (Green Party) told taz. The company's programs have never fulfilled the security policy expectations placed in them, which is why Europol has now also refrained from using them.

The Greens, who are part of the government in North Rhine-Westphalia, are also planning "legal action before the Federal Constitutional Court" if necessary, said von Notz. The court had already declared the use of automated data analysis by investigators in Hesse and Hamburg to be unconstitutional in its current form.

Under Nancy Faeser (SPD), the Federal Ministry of the Interior was in favor of creating a separate research and analysis platform for the police without Palantir. This could look different in a future ministry led by the CSU.

(akn)