Photo by Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash
If I was the CEO of ŌURA, I would've handled this all much differently, but let's take a step back.
Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp said in his book The Technological Republic that he believed the divide between private companies and government agencies is a critical issue for the power that the United States and it's allies holds over their adversaries. He highlights that private companies stopped wanting to work with the government due to how controversial the work was seen by citizens.
And the controversy around the announcement from ŌURA rings that they would be working with Palantir to support their "longstanding relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense" is a prime example of Karp's comment.
ŌURA has worked with the Department of Defense since 2019, so the relationship isn't new, but it's new to the headlines, because they just announced they'd be using Palantir's FedStart software to provide their government-only enterprise solution users DoD Impact Level 5 security.
But what we see happening across social media is that this is coming full circle to trust and values between citizens, private companies, and the government.
ŌURA's CEO, Tom Hale, attempted to address this PR crisis with a video on TikTok - and it's truly insightful for those willing to listen. BUT, you can see in the comment section that people simply don't believe ŌURA, because they don't trust Palantir.
There's nothing inherently scary about the partnership, except for the lack of trust that currently exists between citizens and Palantir. If it was a different software providing ŌURA the DoD IL5 security, I don't think we'd be talking about this at all.
There are a number of softwares on Palantir's FedStart already, but they are B2B defense and government specific solutions, so we don't talk about it.
What will be extremely interesting to see is how the government may use the data collected from services members using ŌURA, and if this could lead to certain health data being used against them, now that it will all be more easily accessible to the DoD with Palantir's support.
Another concern is around the fact that it's the same company who has everyday citizens as users, also has the US Department of Defense as a user, and how close that data may sit. Because ŌURA is tracking such highly sensitive and personal information, the company - rightfully - faces higher scrutiny.
Lastly, we'd be blind to not think about the potential pressure ŌURA may receive from the US Government to disclose other, private citizen, data.
If I was the ŌURA CEO, I would have announced a new subsidiary company that would work specifically with government and defense users, and implement a complete firewall between the 2 companies with their own staff and offices, and a public ethics and compliance policy with a whistleblower hotline for employees at ŌURA and its government or defense clients could use. Or just found an alternative way to achieve DoD IL5 security.
So, will you keep your ŌURA ring?