Personal information of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants may have been shared with Palantir, the controversial software company co-founded by Peter Thiel, as part of a multi-agency fraud investigation, Guardian Australia can reveal. Documents released under freedom of information (FoI) show the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), which has access to NDIA data, used Palantir as part of the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, a body of 25 government agencies established in 2022.
Data sharing and the Fraud Fusion Taskforce
The taskforce, led by the NDIA and Services Australia, is responsible for investigating fraud, with the ACIC operating the Fraud Fusion Centre, which integrates 'large volumes of information, data and intelligence' from agencies, according to FoI documents. Last month, the NDIA denied using Palantir's software, following questions from Guardian Australia after an FoI request revealed the agency had met with company representatives in 2023. However, the new documents suggest NDIA data is being shared with the ACIC, which has used Palantir as part of the taskforce.
The ACIC last year stated it uses 'a range of specialist tools … to gather intelligence, advanced data analysis' to 'identify behavioural patterns and financial activity, and access to extensive intelligence databases that provide deep insights into serious and organised crime networks'. The commission has paid millions in contracts to Palantir in recent years for software that maps connections between people, and the FoI documents indicate its capabilities include bulk data analytics and data-matching across databases.
Privacy concerns and FoI responses
Gabrielle Josling, a data scientist and researcher who filed several FoI requests to taskforce agencies, sought records of data from the fraud taskforce being fed into Palantir's software. In correspondence from late August, an FoI officer expressed reluctance to process the request, noting that 'the process for ingesting one FFC dataset into Palantir generates an amount of documents that … would likely not be manageable.'
A spokesperson for the NDIA confirmed participant information is shared with taskforce partners, but only 'on a restricted basis where potential criminal conduct is suspected to protect participants from fraud.' An ACIC spokesperson said it uses 'a suite of analytical tools and capabilities' and that taskforce-related data is stored consistent with restrictions agreed with the provisioning agency, adding that 'the contributing agency is responsible for articulating any use, handling, and disclosure restrictions to the ACIC.'
Reactions and calls for a ban
Tom Sulston, head of policy at Digital Rights Watch, called it 'very concerning' if Palantir is used in assessing potential fraud in the NDIS, stating, 'People using NDIS deserve the dignity of not being treated like criminals simply for accessing the services that they need to live a full life.' He added that 'the creation of such enormous aggregated datasets is a fundamentally de-humanising application of surveillance technology,' particularly when targeted at people with disabilities.
The Greens senator and digital rights spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said the FoI response revealed that 'having Palantir inside any one government agency sees millions of data points ingested by this global surveillance vampire.' He added, 'NDIS participants give their data to the agency believing it will be protected and only used to assist in their claims, having it funnelled into Palantir under the guise of fraud prevention is a deep betrayal.' Calls to ban Palantir's software in Australia have grown since May, after the company's manifesto was described by a UK MP as the 'ramblings of a supervillain.'
A spokesperson for Palantir said the company 'builds software that helps organisations use their data to make better decisions and solve their most complex problems,' and is 'committed to supporting Australian government agencies in tackling complex challenges, including serious financial crime and fraud.' The supermarket giant Coles announced last week it would not extend its contract with Palantir beyond 2027, having used the software for rostering, store operations, and supply chain planning.
