Google's "Project Nightingale" to be probed.

[Guest]

Project Nightingale is part of a deal with Google and a major US health firm to collect patients health data. How that will be used is not fully revealed yet.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50404678

 

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Google is to be investigated over how it is accessing US patient data via a major health firm, the Wall Street Journal reports.

An office of the US Department of Health and Human Services will examine the details of a deal dubbed "Project Nightingale".

Google said patient data was "secure".

Separately, in the UK, the Financial Times (FT) reports that popular health websites are sharing sensitive data with firms including Google.

The Project Nightingale deal with Ascension - a firm that runs 2,600 hospitals in the US - attracted criticism from some when the Wall Street Journal revealed that Google could access patient data without them being notified.

Among those who expressed concern was Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski.

"Privacy protections, particularly when it comes to personal info like your health, is a high priority of mine," she said via Twitter.

Google have responded 

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However, in a blog, Google argued that the deal "adheres to industry-wide regulations" and that access to patient data by its employees was controlled.

The tech giant said patient data would not be combined with customer data from other parts of its business.

It added that it was "happy to co-operate" with the federal inquiry.

Well that's nice of Google. Sounds to me like industry wide regulations need more scrutiny. It is easy for industry to be self serving and sail close to the wind to avoid public outrage. This seems like one of those cases.

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In its own blog, Ascension said it looked forward to developing artificial intelligence tools for medical purposes with Google's help.

So that's nice, it is all for the best. Ahhh, they want to help us  and it has nothing to do with making massive profits for the shareholders in any way. Honest guv'!

 

There are times when information should be shared, but in this case consent needs to be give by each patient and not in the form of accepting a cookie or hidden on the 97th page of the small print. IMO, the sharing of sensitive personal information needs more thought. There has to be some restrictions in place to prevent companies miss-use. What is deemed as miss-use also needs to be ratified.

 

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News of Project Nightingale coincided with an FT investigation that revealed how popular health websites in the UK frequently shared personal data with companies including Google, Amazon and Facebook.

Websites such as WebMD and Bupa used cookies - code added to web browsers - that allowed other companies to track users' activity on the web.

The kind of data shared from health websites to others included medical symptoms, diagnoses, and menstrual and fertility information, as well as the names of drugs.

Google told the FT it had strict policies preventing advertisers from using sensitive data to target ads.

So not just Google, Amazon and Facebook too. Collecting details of symptoms, diagnoses, menstrual and fertility information. 

 

I would have thought the targeting of ads the least of concern here.

[Doobeedoo]

Google cares for our health

[Kilrah]

Can't advertise to dead people...

 

Dang, was too slow...

[CarlBar]

1 hour ago, Phill104 said:

So not just Google, Amazon and Facebook too. Collecting details of symptoms, diagnoses, menstrual and fertility information. 

 

I would have thought the targeting of ads the least of concern here.

 

Honestly whilst i'm not 100% sure i think doing that might be in breach of certain regulations in the UK.It's certainyl against the spirit of several but not sure they're worded i a way that covers this.

[williamcll]

All those google processing power could have been instead used to fold proteins.

[Vanderburg]

I always look forward to a good probing.

[mr moose]

6 hours ago, CarlBar said:

 

Honestly whilst i'm not 100% sure i think doing that might be in breach of certain regulations in the UK.It's certainyl against the spirit of several but not sure they're worded i a way that covers this.

It's certainly in breach of the regulations as they are understood and supported by the common person.

 

[Guest]

I dont understand the health  system in the US, is health data not collected by the government health system itself?

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, floofer said:

I dont understand the health  system in the US, is health data not collected by the government health system itself?

Does the US government even have a health system?

[XenosTech]

45 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Does the US government even have a health system?

Feels more like EA's DLC

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mr moose said:

Does the US government even have a health system?

They certainly have a system of eating as many deep fried turkeys as they can....

 

On a serious note, a friend of mine has dual UK/US citizenship but lived in the US all his life. That was until he got chron's  disease. He was in a high paid job with full health insurance. However after 3 years he could not get health insurance for love or money. He has ended up moving to the UK with the choice of that or death. He said there were a few things he could do but the whole insurance system made his life hell and had a huge effect on his mental well being. His company were supportive but they couldn't get him insured because of his long term ongoing illness. 

 

Cases like this just make me worry about the future of the US health setup. When big companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook are getting involved it can only be IMO because they see a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They suddenly join all those drug firms selling hope for lots of green and ripping off everyone on the prices of drugs.

[mr moose]

10 hours ago, Phill104 said:

They certainly have a system of eating as many deep fried turkeys as they can....

 

On a serious note, a friend of mine has dual UK/US citizenship but lived in the US all his life. That was until he got chron's  disease. He was in a high paid job with full health insurance. However after 3 years he could not get health insurance for love or money. He has ended up moving to the UK with the choice of that or death. He said there were a few things he could do but the whole insurance system made his life hell and had a huge effect on his mental well being. His company were supportive but they couldn't get him insured because of his long term ongoing illness. 

 

Cases like this just make me worry about the future of the US health setup. When big companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook are getting involved it can only be IMO because they see a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They suddenly join all those drug firms selling hope for lots of green and ripping off everyone on the prices of drugs.

You pose a "project nightmare", but the critical side of me can't flaw the reasoning.   What a shame. 

[ravenshrike]

On 11/13/2019 at 8:10 AM, Kilrah said:

Can't advertise to dead people...

 

Dang, was too slow...

Politicians advertise to dead people all the time at least according to their votes.

[Trik'Stari]

I've been through HIPPA training for IT.

 

If I worked for google in that division, I would be shitting myself. They do NOT play around when it comes to those fines.