As The Logic reported this morning, the Ontario Provincial Police have been using the data-mining tool Palantir Gotham to inform crime-fighting efforts. The platform has come under fire from civil-rights groups when other forces have used it for “predictive policing,” trying to identify people likely to break the law before they do so.

The allusions: Palantir is named after magical communication devices in The Lord of the Rings, crystal balls the arch-villain Sauron perverts to spy on and mislead the forces of good. Gotham City is the corrupt metropolis where Batman fights supervillains in the DC Comics universe.

Unanswered questions: Although the OPP confirmed it uses Palantir products, a spokesperson refused to say how, citing the need “to protect investigative and intelligence techniques.”

Reactions to the news: The OPP’s use of Palantir Gotham is just the latest instance of “secretive police uses of controversial surveillance technologies,” said Brenda McPhail, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s privacy, technology and surveillance program, citing instances of forces employing spyware, facial recognition and mobile monitoring tools. When police departments “choose and implement potentially rights-infringing products without consulting privacy regulators” and “argue the public doesn’t deserve to know how they use these tools even at the level of policy,” they are “not just failing to demonstrate that they deserve public trust, they are actively eroding it,” she said. 

The information and privacy commissioner’s office told The Logic that unlike other jurisdictions, Ontario doesn’t require public institutions to carry out privacy assessments or to check with the commissioner before using new technologies. But, the office said in an emailed statement, “all public institutions in Ontario [should] ensure that proper safeguards and controls are in place to protect the privacy of citizens and comply with the province’s access and privacy laws before they deploy new technologies or programs.”

The commissioner’s staff have not decided whether an investigation is warranted here.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford declined to say whether he knew about or supports the OPP’s use of Palantir Gotham. 

In September 2020, his office said it was unaware of any contacts between the company and the government. Ford’s spokesperson Ivana Yelich said Thursday: “I can only speak to contracts with the government of Ontario. We don’t manage contracts with [broader public sector] organizations, like the OPP.” 

The Ministry of the Solicitor General, a part of the government, oversees the OPP. Solicitor General Michael Kerzner’s press secretary did not respond to questions from The Logic Thursday.