World Food Programme expand Palantir partnership

Palantir provides data management, operational planning, and optimization for the UN World Food Programme (WFP). It is reportedly “the cornerstone of the WFP data ecosystem”. Vast amount of data are being collected - the WFP operates in 120 countries. This includes data of partners, suppliers, transporters, and beneficiaries in aggregate form. This is despite Palantir’s support for governments with poor human rights records that affect the very people WFP are mandated to serve. 

The report from Tech for Bad asks questions on ‘informed consent, data rights obligations and governmental sovereignty’.

The report also alerts civil society that organisations partnering with the WFP might have their data integrated into Palantir’s Foundry without their informed consent.

In our work on Palantir in the UK, we have highlighted the push by governments and organisations to expand surveillance capabilities and harness the power of data to deliver public services, often through public-private partnerships entered without due diligence.

We are concerned that the private sector promotes the development of data-intensive welfare programmes for their own ends. How do private actors reconcile these initiatives with their commercial interests?

We have been raising concerns about the WFP’s partnership with Palantir since they entered into an agreement in 2019. Though 7 years have passed the WFP have yet to demonstrate that this relationship, to quote the WFP’s position on humanitarian protection, will “contribute to the safety, dignity and integrity of vulnerable people”.

We continue to call for development and humanitarian donors and agencies to resist the adoption of technologies that facilitate surveillance, creating serious threats to individuals’ human rights, particularly including their right to privacy.