After being caught red-handed, the government terminates cooperation with Palantir

«We caught the government in the act - it stopped working with Palantir because of the reactions, the questions remain and expose it», Marios Katsis stresses, and explains:

After more than 1 month and the complete lack of any voice of the government of the Southwest regarding the cooperation between the Greek Government and the «data mining» company Palantir Technologies, the Ministry of Digital Governance responded to the question and the Request for Documents we submitted on 17 December 2020, 63 Members of the SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance.

The Minister of State and Digital Governance Mr.Pierrakakis sent the following to the MPs along with his reply:

1. The contract with Palantir signed on 24 March 2020 with a duration of 6 months.

2. The amendment of the contract on 26 March where critical changes are made.

3. The extension of the contract for another 3 months from 24 September to 23 December 2020.

First of all, the non-extension of the contract with Palantir and its termination on December 23, following the reactions of SYRIZA-P.S. of progressive forces and of civil society, is a victory for individual rights and democratic freedoms in our country. The government was «caught red-handed» and gave in to the non-renewal of the contract as Mr. Mitsotakis on 3 December in a secret teleconference with Palantir's leadership, committing «to expanding the cooperation in the coming years». What his communication machine had to hide from the citizens Maximum and we were informed of the meeting by American media, still remains unanswered.

Is everything «well done»?;

However, the government's response to the parliamentary scrutiny to the crucial questions on whether the rules of transparency and protection of personal data that we set were respected, causes greater uncertainty and evidence of serious responsibilities, despite the reassurance attempted with the Minister's answer that «everything is well done».

Specifically, according to the original contract on 24/3/2020 between Palantir and the Greek Government, the Minister signed a contract to provide pseudonymised (“pseudonymised”, pp. 4, Table 2) personal data of patients and members of the general population for which the legislation on personal data must be applied as it is possible through them to identify each citizen (26 GDPR) and not «anonymous, statistical and demographic data» which do not need protection, as he says in his reply.

Two days later, it claims to have made an amendment to the original contract (Amendment No1 - 26/3/2020) removing the term “pseudonymised” and rewording the scope of the personal data to be accessed by Palantir, while it also relies on a confidential response from the Department's Data Protection Officer (DPO) on 27/3, according to which there is no question of a breach of regulations and no need to refer to the DPO. Note that the DPO intervened ex officio on 18 December 2020 on this issue, without it being known whether it has been covered by the Ministry's responses and on the basis of which agreement text it was asked to take a position.

Questions and shadows

The answers raise serious and crucial questions and cast heavy shadows:

1.    Why a contract was signed (24/3) to provide pseudonymised personal data and afterwards the DPO of the Ministry is asked, who gives approval after the contracts are signed?;

2. Why was it necessary to amend the original contract just 2 days after it was signed? When it was signed, did the Minister and his colleagues not know that the pseudonymised data constitute personal data of citizens and need protection?;

3. How is it possible for the Minister to claim that the contract was amended on 26/3, while the original contract signed on 24/3 was extended for 3 months at his request?;

«The government is moving in grey areas»

The contradictions and the patterns are inexorable and suggest that the government from the beginning to the end of this affair is moving in grey areas. The Prime Minister and the responsible Minister who personally undertook this shady collaboration, and with a company that has been internationally accused of unfair practices, are exposed for the way they are handling such a sensitive issue concerning citizens' freedoms and rights. We will not let them play total games of manipulation and commercialisation of personal data.

We are waiting and will come back.