Dutch police also use controversial AI intelligence software by American Palantir
The Dutch police have secretly used controversial AI intelligence software by the American company Palantir since 2012, the Volkskrant reported, based on documents obtained through the Open Government Act after years of trying. 99 percent of the documents have been blacked out, but it is clear that caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoof was involved in purchasing the software in 2011 as Director General of the Dutch police.
Palantir is globally renowned for its advanced AI data analysis software, which can combine colossal amounts of seemingly unrelated data such as online communications, DNA, fingerprints, financial transactions, travel records, contacts, and surveillance footage. The software is used by hundreds of intelligence and investigative services worldwide to track down all kinds of suspects. For example, Israel uses it to track down targets for its army, and the Trump administration uses it to identify immigrants, according to the newspaper.
Palantir is generating record profits and has seen a 1,700 percent share price increase since its IPO in 2020. According to the Volkskrant, Palantir recently secured a lucrative $10 billion contract with the United States Department of Defense.
The Dutch police, counterterrorism agency NCTV, and Public Prosecution Service (OM) have refused for years to disclose any information about whether they use the American company’s software. The first appeal to the then Government Information (Public Access) Act, the precursor to the Open Government Act, was made by Buro Jansen & Janssen in 2019. It took the Amsterdam court’s intervention in a 2023 ruling to get these mostly blacked-out documents released. Buro Jansen & Janssen is fighting to get more of the documents legible.
But the documents show, which span 2012 to 2019, that in 2011, caretaker Prime Minister Schoof, then Director-General of the Police, was involved in the secret procurement of the software for the Dutch authorities. Schoof signed the first Confidentiality and Security Agreement with Palinitir in 2011, and his successor, Gerard Bouman, signed another in 2015 to extend the contract.
The secret Palantir acquisition is part of the Raffinaderij data platform for investigations, the documents show. Raffinaderij links large and diverse databases with Dutch citizens’ data for analysis. A 2019 police privacy analysis of Raffinaderij showed that the platform involved “large amounts of structured and unstructured data” that investigators could quickly examine and visualize in context.
Asked for a response, the police referred the Volkskrant to parliamentary questions answered by caretaker Justice Minister David van Weel about Palantir. He confirmed the continued use of Palantir with the Raffinaderij project, stressing that only police officers have access.
Bob de Graaf, a professor of intelligence and security at Utrecht University, found the Dutch authorities’ use of this controversial software very concerning. He spoke of “a proliferation of virtually uncontrolled intelligence activities” within the Dutch government, according to the Volkskrant. “The agencies involved have far-reaching powers, and their collection and analysis activities can have drastic consequences for citizens who have little or no means of defending themselves against them.”
