Palantir, a data analytics firm best known for its ties to the defence and national security communities, plans to shift its entire UK data processing operation from the US, ahead of what experts are calling a global “regulatory tsunami” affecting cross-border data flows.
By the end of 2022, Palantir will offer UK clients, including NHS England, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence, the option to move all data processing within the UK, a change that it claimed will better protect them from security concerns such as hacks and data leaks. It will offer the same option in the EU, where it also works with public sector customers such as German police forces.
Palantir’s move comes amid rising geopolitical tensions between China, Russia and the west, including the US and EU, alongside new regulatory regimes that are pushing companies to Balkanise their data operations. New laws governing cross-border data flows would affect all businesses that use the internet to operate, with some estimates by risk management consultancy Leviathan Security Group claiming they…
