Patients Are Pulling Their NHS Data Over Palantir Concerns, Minister Warns
Tens of thousands of people have withdrawn their medical records from NHS research programmes, and the UK's health innovation minister says distrust of the American technology firm Palantir may be to blame.
Key points
- Tens of thousands of NHS patients have withdrawn their data from research use, according to new figures reported by The Guardian.
- Health innovation minister James Frith named distrust of Palantir, a US defence and health technology company, as a specific concern.
- Frith warned that public mistrust could shrink the pool of patient data available to medical researchers.
- Palantir holds a contract to build and run the Federated Data Platform, the NHS's central system for sharing patient information across hospitals.
Medical research depends on patient records. The more data researchers can access, the better they can spot patterns and test treatments. In England, patients can opt out of having their records used for purposes beyond their own direct care, and new figures show a meaningful number are now doing exactly that.
Health innovation minister James Frith says he's worried. He named Palantir, the American technology company running a major NHS data system, as a source of the problem.
Why does Palantir make some patients uneasy?
Palantir built its reputation doing data analysis for US military and intelligence agencies. That background alarms privacy campaigners, who worry about a commercial firm with that history holding sensitive health records for millions of people in England.
In 2023, Palantir was awarded a contract to build the NHS Federated Data Platform, a centralised system letting hospitals share patient information with each other and with researchers. The deal attracted protests and legal challenges from privacy groups. We examined the full scope of that relationship in our 15 July 2026 story Palantir has £330m in NHS contracts. Should Britain be worried?.
Frith told The Guardian he was concerned about "mistrust" of the company and "the impact it could have on people's willingness to share data with the NHS". He gave no specific opt-out figure but called the trend something that needs addressing.
What does this mean for ordinary patients?
If you're an NHS patient in England, your data is used for research by default unless you've actively opted out. Opting out won't affect the care you personally receive. Your doctors will treat you identically.
What changes is the pool available to researchers. Fewer records means less information to work with, which can slow the discovery of new treatments or make rare conditions harder to study where patient numbers are already small.
There's a sharper problem underneath this, though. If people are withdrawing because they distrust a particular contractor rather than the NHS itself, that's fixable in a way that a principled objection to data sharing generally is not. It suggests confidence could be rebuilt, if the government chooses to try.
Frith's public comments show ministers are at least aware of the reputational damage. Whether that produces action on the contract, greater transparency about data storage, or a communications effort is a different question. Greater Manchester's decision to run its own health data system rather than adopt the national platform, which we reported on 21 August 2026, gives the government a working alternative to point to if it needs one.
Common questions
Can I get my NHS records removed from research use?
Yes. Patients in England can opt out through the NHS website or by contacting their GP. This applies to data used for research and planning, not to records needed for your own direct care.
Does opting out affect my treatment?
No. Opting out only stops your anonymised records being used in research and NHS planning projects. Your doctors will still have full access to your medical history and your care won't change.
