A disincentive to use the NHS’ track and trace app is the news that the NHS has passed data on UK coronavirus patients to Palantir, the Californian data mining startup founded by eccentric PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel.

Bloomberg reports that the political website OpenDemocracy and lawyers Foxglove have seen a contract between  the NHS and Palantir under which UK patients’ contact details, and data on  gender, race, work, physical and mental health, political and religious affiliationS and past criminal offenses were to be passed to Palantir.

Actual names are not given and race and religion are said to be only given where it is legal to do so.

Under the contract Palantir  must destroy or return the data to the NHS When they have finished working together while only certain Palantir employees, authorised by the NHS, will get access to UK patient data.

The NHS’ track and trace app has been criticised for storing the information it gathers on a central government database instrad, like the Apple/Google app, of storing it on the mobile devices where it is collected

Giving control of the data to the government is seen as a dangerous move towards state surveillance, whereas leaving the data on the device gives the device owner control over the data.

There has been disquiet in the past that the NHS has sold patient data to commercial companies.