Australian supermarket chain Coles has said it will not be continuing its partnership with American data intelligence firm Palantir.
“Coles and Palantir have agreed to conclude their partnership after three years of collaboration,” a Coles spokesperson told Cyber Daily today.
“Palantir’s technology has delivered value across Coles’ operations, particularly in rostering, store operations, and supply chain planning. The technology has helped Coles drive operational efficiencies that ultimately mean we have the products available when customers need them and team members in the right place at the right time to serve our customers.”
The move comes after a lengthy and sometimes bitter campaign led by activist group GetUp. It claimed Palantir’s technology was being used to surveil customers in-store – an allegation that Coles has consistently denied.
“Coles uses this software as a data integration and analytics software platform, which helps our team members make practical, informed decisions across our business,” the company said.
“The software is used for bakery production planning, trading performance analysis and rostering. It’s an operational platform focused on helping stores run more effectively.
“The software is deployed within Coles’ own environment and is operated and isolated under Coles controls. Palantir does not control the data, nor can it independently repurpose it.”
Despite Coles’ statements to the contrary, GetUp and its supporters are now claiming to have succeeded in their campaign.
“Less than a year ago, this issue was barely on the radar. But when GetUp members flagged the issue, we knew our community had to respond,” GetUp said in a statement.
“So an idea became a petition. Then a webinar. Then stencil art activation in Coles stores. Then billboards at nearly 700 locations nationwide. Then human digital billboards. Even a push to get a shareholder vote on the partnership, backed by hundreds of Coles shareholders and GetUp members, at the Coles AGM.”
Tensions between the activists and Coles recently came to a head, with the supermarket giant taking issue with the use of one of its staff in GetUp campaign material.
“And after refusing for months to engage with our campaign, Coles has just threatened GetUp with aggressive legal action if we don’t pull our campaign and publicly apologise,” GetUp said last month after Coles sent the group a letter.
Cyber Daily understands that Coles did not commence any legal action, and that the confidential letter was purely related to Coles’ employee and their distress over being filmed without their permission, and then used in GetUp’s campaign without their consent.
Nonetheless, GetUp is now asserting that “Coles was never the whole story”.
“Right now, Australia is having a real reckoning about privacy,” GetUp said.
“Coles and Woolworths have started testing facial recognition. In NSW, facial recognition is about to become mandatory at the door of every pub and club with a pokie machine. Companies like Meta and Kmart are spruiking a new fashion accessory: smart glasses with a camera built in – and there’s already real backlash, especially from women who don’t love the idea of being secretly filmed by a stranger at a bar or on public transport. And Palantir still has lucrative contracts with Westpac, Rio Tinto, and a host of government agencies.”
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