Page 2: European Palantir alternatives

Contents

In addition to the projects being discussed in Germany, other European countries are also developing Palantir alternatives. What they all have in common is the goal of preserving digital and legal sovereignty.

France: ChapsVision ArgonOS

The ChapsVision platform ArgonOS is already being rolled out by French security authorities, specifically the DGSI (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure), as a replacement for Palantir. ArgonOS is designed as a national big data infrastructure, specifically for the police and intelligence services, and includes data mining, custom analysis frameworks, and AI-based decision-making tools. The platform can be operated on-premise or in government-controlled cloud environments to ensure French data sovereignty and eliminate any dependence on US laws. Government funding and close cooperation with European security companies make ArgonOS a potential candidate for developing a blueprint for future EU-wide projects.

Switzerland: BI tools instead of a complete platform

Swiss police authorities such as the Aargau cantonal police use Tableau for situation analyses, forecasts and operational dashboards with regional data. In addition, national in-house developments and special solutions are integrated, which are comprehensively adapted to Swiss data protection law and data sovereignty requirements. Sensitive police data remains in national systems and is not processed via US clouds.

Scandinavia & Baltic States: EU-funded research projects

As part of Horizon Europe and other EU security programs, collaborative projects are being created to develop graph-based analysis and investigation platforms for the police.
For example, the VIGILANT project brings together several European police authorities and research partners to combat online disinformation and extremist communication using AI and multimedia analysis. However, most of the platforms are still at the research stage and are to be further developed as practical tools in the medium term.

Experts call for controllable software

Months ago, experts such as constitutional law expert Dr. Jonas Botta pointed out that data analysis by the police must be subject to an extremely high threshold of intervention – comparable to secret surveillance. Existing police laws have not yet adequately covered this. He sees further risks in the close involvement of Palantir employees in authorities and the danger of foreign authorities gaining access to sensitive data. His conclusion: independent, controllable software from Europe would be "a gain" for democracy and the rule of law.

(mack)