'Why we must fight Palantir' — Nym VPN CEO shares his anti-Palantir manifesto | Tech Radar

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'Why we must fight Palantir' — Nym VPN CEO shares his anti-Palantir manifesto

Harry Halpin urges developers to prioritize global privacy over national defense

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Nym CEO Harry Halpin released an "Anti-Palantir Manifesto"

Halpin's response follows Palantir's 22-point manifesto on X

Nym clarified that the manifesto reflects Halpin’s personal views

The CEO of Nym VPN, Harry Halpin, has published a blistering "Anti-Palantir Manifesto" in a fierce rebuke to the data analytics giant's controversial push for militarized technology.

The feud ignited on April 18 when Palantir posted a 22-point manifesto on X outlining its vision for a "Technological Republic". In it, the company argued that "Silicon Valley owes a moral debt" to the US and that engineers have an "obligation to participate in the defense of the nation". The post, tied to a new book by Palantir CEO Alex Karp, also controversially advocated for universal national service and hard military power driven by software.

Halpin wasn't having any of it. In his response, then published on Nym's blog, the CEO tore into Palantir's vision with 22 counterpoints on "why we must fight Palantir."

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Crucially, the head of Nym VPN warned that Palantir seeks to "combine state violence with corporate efficiency," creating what he deems "a new form of technofascism".

For anyone searching for the best VPN to safeguard their digital life, this high-profile clash highlights exactly what is at stake. The debate isn't just theoretical; it directly impacts how everyday users are tracked, monitored, and protected online.

While Halpin is the driving force behind Nym's technology, both Halpin and the company were quick to clarify that the manifesto represents the CEO's personal philosophical beliefs, not an official corporate policy of Nym as an entity. Still, Halpin's words resonate deeply with the core ethos of the platform he helped build.

In his anti-Palantir manifesto, Halpin argues that the internet was designed as a universal system, not the property of any single government, rejecting Palantir's call for nationalistic engineering.

"Programmers working on the Internet have a moral responsibility to the entire world, not a single country," he wrote.

Because I get asked a lot. Why we must fight Palantir, in brief.1. Programmers working on the Internet have a moral responsibility to the entire world, not a single country. The Internet has been designed since its inception as a universal system for the sharing of knowledge…April 22, 2026

Halpin paints a grim picture of modern mass surveillance, claiming that web tracking systems are now capable of operating at a scale "unimaginable" to historical secret police forces.

However, he also offers a solution deeply rooted in the cypherpunk tradition: "Surveillance can only be defeated by building software and hardware to defend ourselves," he argues.

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Ultimately, Halpin’s manifesto is a rallying cry for the privacy sector. "Only when one can be anonymous is one truly free," he writes, emphasizing that the freedom to navigate the web without censorship or surveillance is a mandatory precondition for a democratic society.

Halpin's fierce defense of anonymity is the exact foundation upon which Nym VPN operates. The product, which recently celebrated its first birthday, takes a radically different approach to online security compared to traditional providers.

Rather than routing your traffic through a single server, which still requires you to trust that the VPN company isn't logging your data, Nym VPN utilizes a decentralized "mixnet." This multi-hop architecture routes your data through multiple independent nodes, while also promising protection against metadata tracking.

The platform is continuously evolving to meet the very threats Halpin outlines, too. For instance, Nym VPN recently rolled out post-quantum encryption across all its applications, ensuring that user data remains secure even against future advancements in computing.

In a tech landscape increasingly dominated by state-aligned data giants, Nym VPN stands as a practical tool for users who agree with Halpin's bottom line: your data belongs to you, and your privacy is worth fighting for.

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Rene Millman is a seasoned technology journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, the Financial Times, Computer Weekly, and IT Pro. With over two decades of experience as a reporter and editor, he specializes in making complex topics like cybersecurity, VPNs, and enterprise software accessible and engaging.

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'Why we must fight Palantir' — Nym VPN CEO shares his anti-Palantir manifesto
Harry Halpin urges developers to prioritize global privacy over national defense