Email,
Every week, millions of us shop at Coles. We scan our groceries, tap our cards, and go home.
But behind the checkout screens, Coles has partnered with Palantir – a CIA and Trump-linked surveillance corporation owned by a far-right billionaire, whose core business is building AI data and surveillance tech for actors like ICE and the US military.
Coles says Palantir is being used for internal planning purposes – but also that their tools have access to "10 billion rows of data" across more than 840 supermarkets. That's all we've been told.
Coles collects vast amounts of data on us every time we shop. Its own privacy policy confirms it uses video and audio surveillance in stores, collects transaction and purchase histories, and tracks our device identifiers, IP addresses and web/app activity.
And right now, we don't know whether Palantir has access – directly or indirectly – to systems containing our customer data or in-store surveillance feeds.
✍️ This matters. Sign to demand Coles end the Palantir partnership and get military-grade surveillance tech out of our grocery stores.
Palantir's software is used to directly enable some of the worst abuses of the Trump regime. It's used by ICE to power data systems that track, target and coordinate detention and deportation operations – and US Senate investigations have linked those operations to family separations with more than a thousand children still not reunited.
Its tech was also used to plan the illegal attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of Maduro that reportedly left more than a hundred people dead or wounded. And Palantir's founder and chair is the controversial Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel – who's spent vast sums of money promoting ideas and political candidates widely condemned as anti-democratic and racist.
If it sounds like this sort of company should have nothing to do with Coles – you're right. Supermarkets are essential infrastructure. They are not intelligence agencies. They are not defence contractors.
We should not accept the quiet normalisation of defence-grade surveillance and AI technology in places where you and I buy our bread and milk. And that's why Coles must end its partnership with Palantir.
✍️ Sign the petition to demand Coles end this partnership and protect customers from opaque surveillance systems.
In solidarity,
Rob for the GetUp Team
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GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you'd like to contribute to help fund GetUp's work, donate now! We collect, store and use personal information and other data as set out in our Privacy Policy. If you do not wish to receive updates to emailnew...@googlegroups.com from us, please unsubscribe.
Our team acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work. We wish to pay respect to Elders - past, present and emerging - and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.
Authorised by D. Loasby, GetUp, 52 Reservoir St, Sydney.
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