Traveling technology and perverted logics: conceptualizing Palantir’s expansion into health as sphere transgression

Abstract

This paper contains a normative interpretation and critique of Palantir’s expansion into the health domain by using the conceptual lens of ‘sphere transgressions’. The technology company, known for its activities in the sphere of security, expanded into the health domain during the pandemic, providing software to monitor the spread of Covid-19. In 2019 Palantir was severely criticized by human rights organizations for its role in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration. Activists and politicians worry about Palantir’s move into health. However, critique is often limited to data protection. These concerns fail to grasp the risks and harms of this expansion. In this paper, I explore the risks of Palantir’s expansion into the health sphere using Sharon’s sphere transgressions framework as a conceptual lens and critical tool to understand and judge this move. We should anticipate the risks of no public returns, dominance, and new dependencies. While this might be true for many Big Tech actors, I add that Palantir’s expansion might be particularly pernicious. Palantir’s history reveals the perversion of logics under exclusionary politics in the sphere of security. At the very least, this warrants special vigilance when importing their technologies into the sphere of health. I conclude that the sphere transgressions framework reveals risks beyond data protection regarding Palantir’s expansion into the health domain.