Rumor that Oura ring shares health data with Palantir is an exaggeration

In 2025, rumors abounded that Oura Health, the maker of a ring that reads biometric data, and Palantir Technologies, a software company that serves the U.S. government, allowed the latter company access to ring users’ data. 

For example, a Nov. 30, 2025, post on X claimed that if someone had an Oura ring, they were giving their health data to Palantir (archived):

As of this writing, the post had 1.8 million views and 39,000 likes. A video on TikTok made the same claim, calling the alleged partnership “surveillance capitalism.” An August 2025 post on Reddit described Palantir as a “tech surveillance company” and worried the alleged partnership with Oura could allow users’ data to fall into “the hands of the wrong people.”

The rumor stemmed from a genuine connection between Oura and Palantir, though it was an exaggeration of facts about what that partnership means for Oura ring users’ privacy.

Oura has a long-standing contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for an employee-only program in which DOD staff can use the rings. Oura allows authorized DOD personnel to access that data about employees’ health. Those DOD personnel do so using a specialized Oura platform that keeps DOD data separate from the data of individual Oura subscribers. Oura said the program is voluntary, and DOD employees can use the Oura rings while opting out of the data-sharing scheme with their employer.

Separately, it is true that Oura started a relationship with Palantir in 2024, when Oura acquired a platform, Sparta Science’s Trinsic. Sparta had established that relationship with Palantir prior to Oura acquiring it. Oura said in August 2025 this commercial relationship would allow the company to expand its ability to share protected data with the DOD regarding DOD personnel who use Oura rings. Oura told Snopes it had not yet started to share data with DOD personnel through Palantir.

Snopes reached out to both Oura and Palantir for this report. We received comments from an Oura spokesperson, which we outline below, and are waiting for a response from Palantir.

The main players: Oura, Palantir, DOD

Worn all day, the Oura ring reads a user’s temperature, blood oxygen, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and movement. It transfers the data to an application and analyzes the biometric information to provide insights on the person’s health metrics, such as quality of sleep, activity, stress levels, resiliency or menstrual cycles. 

Oura has two types of client: individual subscribers and organizations that provide their employees Oura rings, like the Defense Department.

Palantir offers subscription-based access to its software and specializes in creating programs that aggregate data and deliver insights for decision-making. Palantir stresses it is not a data company, but rather an organization that creates and sells software that allows clients to use data they already own. Among Palantir’s clients are hospitals in the U.S. and U.K, which means it must adhere to strict privacy rules.

Oura partnered with the DOD in 2019, according to the company. Under this existing agreement, which does not rely on Palantir’s technology, DOD personnel can wear Oura rings and opt into the voluntary program to share their biometric data with the Defense Department. An Oura spokesperson said in an email to Snopes:

Since 2019, our collaborations with the U.S. Department of Defense have focused on research and supporting the health, readiness, and performance of U.S. service members and DoD civilian employees, with each retaining consent controls over sharing their data.

In an August 2025 news release, Oura said the DOD was its “largest enterprise customer,” and that it was expanding its manufacturing in Fort Worth, Texas, to support the needs of U.S. forces. Another news release published on the same day said Oura “deployed tens of thousands of rings in support of the DoD’s efforts to enhance human performance across all branches of the armed services.” 

The rumor’s origin

An announcement in the above-mentioned August 2025 news releases is what fueled new concerns over users’ privacy: Oura said it would expand DOD personnel data-sharing using a Palantir platform named FedStart. 

FedStart aims to make it easier for small-scale software companies to comply with stringent information-security standards required to gain accreditation to work with the U.S. federal government.

Oura’s use of FedStart would concern only “targeted deployments” — that is, the sharing of new, highly sensitive information with the DOD — according to the announcement (emphasis ours):

Underscoring its commitment to responsible data practices, Oura’s Enterprise Platform will empower government personnel, including performance coaches and commanders, with individual and unit insights and unlock targeted deployments enabled by Palantir FedStart’s IL5-ready hosting environment.

The announcement’s reference to “IL5-ready hosting environment” pertains to security standards the Defense Department imposes on its vendors. 

FedStart adheres to the second-highest security standard that the DOD imposes on its vendors, known as “impact level 5,” or IL5, according to Palantir documentation. The DOD applies this standard to highly sensitive, non-classified information. 

According to DOD documents regarding the IL5 standard, only authorized personnel or contractors would have access to DOD employees’ ring data through FedStart. In this case, heads of military units could make decisions on who among their troops may be best prepared for complex missions based on the biometric data. Those who access Oura data protected by the IL5 standard must be U.S. citizens and have undergone a background check, the DOD says. 

In other words, the IL5 information security standard would preclude unauthorized people to access the data, and any attempt to do so by an unauthorized person — including people at Palantir — would violate this standard. “ŌURA does not give — and has never given — Palantir access to user data,” a spokesperson for Oura said in an emailed statement.

According to Oura, people who use Oura through their employers — like, employees of the Defense Department — share their data via the “Oura Enterprise Platform” (OEP), a specialized platform. According to Oura’s spokesperson:

This distinct environment [the OEP] meets the agency’s [DOD] strict security and privacy requirements, features distinct architecture and access controls, and is accessible only to authorized personnel for designated programs. The platform Oura uses for other customers, including individual customers, is a separate one, which follows strict privacy rules. Consumer users’ data never enters or interacts with the separate enterprise environment used for government programs.

Only some of the most sensitive DOD data stored on the OEP would go through FedStart, Oura said.

Oura’s response to the rumor

Oura’s privacy policy for individual subscribers says it does not sell or “rent” user data (renting data refers to the practice of tech platforms giving users access to their data only while they’re paying for subscriptions) and “only shares your personal data with certain trusted service providers and partners” for the purposes “we’ve authorized”:

Oura does not sell or rent your personal information, and only shares your personal data with certain trusted service providers and partners so that we can provide and improve our services, to provide partner services and other offerings, and to operate our business. Whenever we share data with third-party service providers, we require that they use your information only for the purposes we’ve authorized, and for the limited reasons explained in this Policy.

The privacy policy also states Oura may share users’ data “when it is required by applicable laws and regulations,” but it will “oppose any request to provide legal authorities with access to user data for surveillance or prosecution purposes.”

Responding to the misleading allegations that Oura had given Palantir access to ring users’ data, Oura posted videos of CEO Tom Hale saying the company would not share or sell users’ data without their consent.

In one video that was shot during an interview at a September 2025 event, Hale said the rumors conflated the service Oura provides individual customers with a separate platform that the company acquired in 2024. 

That separate platform, Oura’s Sparta Science‘s Trinsic data software, uses movement data to create insights into individuals’ health, allowing people to plan their training or prevent injury. Trinsic, Oura said in October 2024 announcing it acquired Sparta Science, would help them deliver insights “at scale” for enterprise purposes — for example, in a military setting — to get a clear picture of the health and readiness of troops.

This technology gave Oura access to Palantir’s FedStart platform. In October 2023, Sparta Science announced it had integrated the program to operate at impact level 5, the DOD’s security standard for data-sharing.