“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,” GetUp said in its petition.

GetUp noted that Coles is known to collect “vast amounts” of shopper data, as well as making use of video and audio surveillance in its stores.

“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,” GetUp said.

Coles has responded to the campaign by explaining what it does in fact use Palantir’s technology for – and it’s not surveillance.

“Coles uses this software as a data integration and analytics platform, which helps our team members make practical, informed decisions across our business,” a Coles spokesperson told Cyber Daily.

“The software is used for bakery production planning, evaluating promotions, rostering and providing insights for retail media performance reporting. It’s an operational platform focused on helping stores run more effectively.”

The company said Palantir’s software is under its sole control and that Palantir cannot repurpose any data collected by Coles.

Palantir’s response was more open-ended, and while it did not refer to Coles specifically, it explained the limits of its partnerships with other organisations.

“Palantir software is used in a range of settings to deliver better outcomes – including helping Ukraine to defend itself from Russian aggression, the NHS in England to deliver more operations, and the World Food Programme to deliver food to remote areas of the world,” a Palantir spokesperson said.

“Whichever customer uses the software, legally and contractually, the software can only be used to process data in strict accordance with the wishes of the customer.”