Palantir sues to protect its source code as trade-secret — markets its platform as 'auditable' and 'transparent' to government clients
CASE A
Palantir Technologies Inc. v. Abramowitz et al. (5:19-cv-06879)
Palantir's source code, ranking algorithms, and data-model schemas are protected trade secrets. Disclosure — even under court-ordered protective order — would cause irreparable competitive harm. Confidentiality clauses must override any third-party transparency interest, including subpoena response by departed engineers.Source ↗
CASE B
NHS England Federated Data Platform contract & Palantir testimony to UK Parliament
Marketing position: Palantir Foundry/Gotham provides 'auditability', 'transparency', and 'civil-liberties protections' that justify entrusting it with NHS patient records, IRS taxpayer files, and ICE detention data. The same platform whose code is a sealed trade secret is sold to government clients as a transparency-enhancing tool.Source ↗
// THE PARADOX
Palantir's commercial-litigation posture is that its software is so proprietary and confidential that even a federal court cannot compel meaningful disclosure of how its ranking and matching algorithms work. Its government-marketing posture is the opposite: that those same systems are transparent and auditable enough to be entrusted with NHS health data, IRS records, and ICE deportation targeting. The transparency claimed to the public is foreclosed by the trade-secret protection asserted in court.