Washington (AFP)
Data analytics company Palantir is working with the U.S. government to help it track the production and distribution in the country of future Covid-19 vaccines, raising concerns about the management of medical data.
The project, first reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed to AFP by an internal source, is based on the use of software called Tiberius which could make it possible to better identify the populations most at risk.
But cooperation between the authorities and the government could attract criticism as it gives Palantir, a private company, access to sensitive medical data, notes the business daily.
Palantir, regularly blamed for its cooperation with law enforcement in tracking migrants in the United States, for example, declined to comment.
Some critics say the company's technology - which analyzes data as diverse as financial records, social media posts or web browsing - enables unprecedented mass surveillance.
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange at the end of September, Palantir regularly defends itself by stressing that it does not collect and does not have data but operates on the existing bases of its clients.
Founded in 2003 with, among other things, CIA money, Palantir began by creating software for the anti-terrorist operations of the US intelligence services.
For example, the company would have helped the US military locate Osama bin Laden.
She recently worked with British health authorities, alongside Google and Microsoft, to help track the progress of Covid-19, according to contracts made public by the organization Open Democracy Project.
No vaccine is yet available in the United States.
But US companies Pfizer and Moderna plan to seek authorization for their Covid-19 vaccines by the end of November in the country.
© 2020 AFP