Bedfordshire Police using AI tool to profile political views, sex life, race and health data

Bedfordshire Police is piloting a controversial AI-powered data system that can access highly sensitive information about individuals, including their race, political views, sex life and health, according to an investigation by Liberty Investigates and The i paper.

The system, named Nectar, has been developed in collaboration with Palantir Technologies, a US tech giant co-founded by Peter Thiel, a donor to Donald Trump and close advisor during his first term as US president.

Nectar is designed to integrate dozens of policing databases into a single, AI-assisted platform that can create detailed digital profiles of individuals.

According to internal documents shared with the Bedford Independent, the system is already in use in Bedfordshire and is being considered for wider deployment nationally.

An internal data protection impact assessment (DPIA), obtained under freedom of information (FOI) laws, reveals that the tool accesses data not only on suspects but also on victims, witnesses, and vulnerable individuals, including children.

The 34-page DPIA outlines Nectar’s role in “identifying and mitigating risk, understanding threat, and supporting operational decision-making”, with its stated aim being to create “a single source of truth” for law enforcement.

While Bedfordshire Police and Palantir both insist that Nectar only accesses data already held by the police and does not provide new or predictive data, privacy campaigners and senior MPs have raised alarm over the extent of information being processed.

Read: Concerns raised over police’s planned use of facial recognition software at Bedford River Festival

The DPIA confirms that the system “will require and be used to access” 11 types of “special category data”, including race, religion, sex life, political opinions, health, trade union membership, and philosophical beliefs.

Other data sources include social media posts, dating profile content, and financial records, some of which require court warrants to access.

“Deeply concerning”

David Davis MP (Conservative) called for urgent parliamentary scrutiny of Nectar, warning that such tools risk “appropriating powers” beyond their remit.

“There are lots of reasons to be concerned by this software,” he said. “It raises multiple issues – from data deletion to innocent people being flagged by mistake. It needs to be examined in Parliament.”

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has also expressed concern that Nectar can access information about trade union membership, echoing past cases where employers blacklisted union activists after police involvement.

Amnesty International said the system amounted to a form of “indiscriminate mass surveillance.”

Reading through the DPIA, the following additional risks and points of public interest have also been identified:

• Minimal public consultation: The document acknowledges that consultation with various stakeholders is needed, but it does not provide details of a public consultation or awareness campaign.
• Sharing with third parties: The DPIA confirms that Nectar has functionality that would allow the onward sharing of intelligence to partners, including agencies outside the police. Furthermore, it states there is an intention to create a real-time data-sharing network across BCH Regional Policing, UK Policing, and partners.
• No individual opt-out: Nothing in the DPIA suggests there will be options for individuals whose data is included in Nectar to opt out or request exclusion.

A spokesperson for Bedfordshire Police said the tool is currently part of an “explorative exercise” and has been used to identify more than 120 young people at risk of abuse in just eight days.

“As the landscape of policing evolves, it’s imperative that we evolve with it, which means taking an innovative approach to systems and procedures to allow us to be more efficient,” they said.

Adding that they consider the privacy of personal information to be “absolutely paramount” and that Nectar had been designed with “robust security measures”.

Palantir stated that it does not support predictive policing or racial profiling and reiterated that Nectar does not create new data; it simply helps police interpret what they already lawfully possess.

The Home Office has commented that no decision had been made regarding the national rollout and that it remains a matter for operationally independent police forces.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons technology select committee, warned that confidence in public sector technology would only come through “appropriate safeguards and transparency.”

“For the digital transformation of government to be successful, people must be able to have confidence in public sector technology,” she said

Privately controlled data

Palantir Technologies, the company behind the Nectar platform, has long attracted controversy for its role in state surveillance and its close ties to US defence and intelligence agencies.

The Guardian, in a November 2023 report, described Palantir as a “natural target for suspicion” due to its origins in the post-9/11 US security state and its work with the CIA, FBI, and US military.

The company’s co-founder, billionaire investor Peter Thiel, is a vocal libertarian and was a prominent supporter of Donald Trump. Thiel has openly stated that Palantir was created to defend what he sees as “Western values” and “civilisation itself” through advanced data analysis.

Writing in the New Statesman in March 2025, journalist Andrew Marr explored what he called “the Palantir problem”.

He warns that the company’s expanding presence in UK public services – including the NHS and policing – reflects a broader shift towards privately controlled data infrastructure with little democratic oversight.

Marr argued that Palantir’s deepening integration into British institutions risks concentrating immense power in the hands of unelected technocrats and foreign shareholders, while eroding public trust and accountability.