Why Germany Should Never Entrust Its Citizens' Data to an Enemy of Democracy.
The Bundesrat's decision on March 22, 2025, may read like a routine administrative act: Police forces across Germany are to adopt software from the U.S. tech firm Palantir for nationwide use. But behind what appears to be a technical upgrade in law enforcement lies a deeply consequential step, one that threatens civil liberties, data protection, and the very foundations of a liberal democracy.
Because Palantir is not just any analytics provider. It is the brainchild of a man whose political ideology and affiliations stand in stark contrast to democratic values: Peter Thiel, billionaire investor, Silicon Valley power player, and ideological architect of authoritarian-leaning systems.
Peter Thiel – An Opponent of the Open Society
Peter Thiel is no quiet tech tycoon in the background. He is a man on a mission, and his mission has little to do with democracy. As a co-founder of PayPal, early Facebook investor, and later a close advisor and financier to Donald Trump, Thiel's influence is far-reaching. His ties to Trump are not incidental—Thiel played a direct role in shaping the former president’s inner circle, helping to place hardline, anti-democratic figures in key positions.
Thiel doesn’t view democracy as a triumph, but as an obstacle. Back in 2009, he wrote in a now-infamous essay:
“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
What might have seemed like a provocative thought experiment back then has since been translated into real-world policy—through Palantir.
Palantir – The Digital Instrument of Power
Palantir builds platforms for data integration and analysis—sophisticated systems that combine, mine, and cross-reference massive amounts of personal information, ostensibly to support law enforcement and intelligence work. But what sounds like a simple software solution is, in reality, a highly invasive surveillance tool.
In Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, Palantir is already in use—with troubling consequences. Civil rights organizations such as the Society for Civil Rights (GFF) and Reporters Without Borders have long warned: the software turns suspicion into supposed certainty, using algorithmic pattern recognition to flag individuals who may never have warranted investigation in the first place.
In January 2023, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the use of Palantir software in Hesse was partially unconstitutional—a clear rebuke of its broad infringement on civil liberties and the right to informational self-determination.
A Company Beyond Democratic Oversight
Adding to the concern is the fact that Palantir is an American company, subject to U.S. law, and closely intertwined with agencies like the CIA and the Pentagon. Publicly traded since 2020, Palantir continues to profit from military and intelligence contracts—and thrives on an atmosphere of perpetual crisis.
That German authorities are now planning to entrust their most sensitive data—including location histories, communication records, and social networks of potential suspects—to a firm deeply embedded in the U.S. national security ecosystem is not just careless—it’s a security policy failure.
No one can guarantee these datasets won’t end up in U.S. intelligence hands. No one knows how Palantir might repurpose, replicate, or monetize this information. And the German government has yet to provide a single convincing answer to these very real concerns.
A Democratic State Using Authoritarian Tools?
There’s something deeply contradictory about this: a democratic state like Germany now relies on software built around the worldview of a man who sees the principles of that democracy as flaws, not features. Thiel sees transparency and public participation as inefficiencies, privacy as a barrier, and equality as a myth. His investments serve an ideological project: to make the state more efficient—but not more democratic.
Palantir is not a neutral technology. It embodies an authoritarian logic, one that compiles citizen data, categorizes behavior, and enables preemptive policing based on predictive analytics. The risk is that those resisting surveillance, discrimination, or police abuse in the future may find themselves targeted by an opaque algorithm that cannot be questioned—but will be believed.
This Is a Wake-Up Call. Not a Technical Footnote
That German policymakers, in an era of rising authoritarianism, declining institutional trust, and digital expansion, now choose Palantir as a cornerstone of law enforcement tech, reveals a dangerous level of political naivety.
Because Peter Thiel is not a neutral businessman, and Palantir is not an apolitical product. This is not just about software. It’s about power—over data, over people, over the narrative of public safety and control.
A Democracy Should Never Sell Its Core Values for Convenience
Palantir may promise efficiency and innovation in policing. But the true cost is far greater. Because any state that entrusts its most intimate data to an open enemy of democracy—someone like Peter Thiel—is not just sacrificing privacy. It is compromising the moral compass of an open society.
Palantir is not a service provider. It is a Trojan horse. And those who let it in may one day realize that it doesn’t just feed on data—it devours freedom.
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