Featured · Independent Investigation · 9-part series
UK Data Linkage: Independent Investigation
How the UK Ministry of Justice, ONS and NHS England link citizens' records with Splink — lawful, undisclosed to the individual, and quietly migrating toward real-time operational use — and where, exactly, the courts have ruled the same playbook unlawful. Built entirely from the governments' own published documents, every claim primary-sourced and adversarially fact-checked.
Public-Interest Investigation · Legal Exposure · Latest
Ruled Unlawful Next Door: What Has Actually Been Adjudicated
No court has ruled Data First, Splink, ONS IDS or ADR UK unlawful — and I say so plainly. But the same shortcut, keeping citizens' data-protection safeguards in policy instead of law, has been struck down by the courts three times running. Tier-graded, primary-sourced, with slides. Where the line is, and the line I will not cross.
Public-Interest Investigation · The Software Map · Latest
The Splink Ecosystem: Every App Tied to the Tool
The supply-chain map: every app, library, backend and government system genuinely tied to Splink — and, fenced off, the rivals that aren't. 75 items, tiered and sourced. Broad reach (~890k downloads/month) but narrow real dependency, concentrated in UK government — and GitHub's "110 dependents" turns out to be inflated.
Public-Interest Investigation · The Close · Latest
The Joined-Up State: What It All Adds Up To
The capstone. Eight investigations in one verdict: two layers of citizen-data linkage (open-source statistical Splink + US-owned operational Palantir), what the courts have actually ruled — tiered honestly — and what a citizen, a journalist or a regulator can do about it. The line held all the way through.
Public-Interest Investigation · Palantir Worldwide · Latest
The Operational Twin Goes Global: Palantir Across Every Country That Runs Splink
Does the pattern travel? Palantir mapped across all ten Splink countries, tiered and adversarially verified. The US dominant and operational; Germany's Constitutional Court ruled the Palantir-run police system unconstitutional — and named it; Chile, the Gambia and Laos clean negatives. Same states, two ends of data-linkage — the high-risk, foreign-owned end bought with far less transparency.
Public-Interest Investigation · Palantir Companion · Latest
The Operational Twin: Palantir and the Joined-Up British State
Palantir does not run Splink — but it is the US-owned operational layer in the same NHS, MoD, Home Office and police systems Splink links statistically. Eight connection vectors, tiered by what can be proven, with an animated department-by-department map. Where Splink counts, Palantir acts.
Public-Interest Investigation · Global Footprint · Latest
Who Actually Uses Splink — And What They Do With Your Records
Fourteen government adopters, each profiled to UK depth and adversarially fact-checked. The honest answer is narrower than the maintainer's logo-wall: 3 proven operational (UK MoJ, ONS, Australia), a self-reported middle tier (some of it wrong), pilots and research — and confirmed cases where Splink was tested and rejected. Tiered by what can actually be proven.
Public-Interest Investigation · How It Works · Visual
How Splink Works: No Hack, No Consent, No Opt-Out
The whole machine in one picture: separate health, tax, justice, benefits and census records — with no shared ID — matched by MoJ-built software into one profile of you. Not a hack. No consent required. No opt-out. The short, visual version of the series.
Public-Interest Investigation · Follow-up
Statistics or Operations? What the UK's Own Documents Admit
The MoJ says Data First is "not for operational decision-making." A separate transparency record describes the same tool — Splink — running in courts, in real time, with a daily feed to the police. The line they drew, and where they stepped over it.
Cryptography · Architecture
Three Signatures, No Insurance
Most chains pick one signature scheme. I sign every entry three times. Lattice, classical, hash-based — three independent mathematical foundations. An attacker has to break all three.