Health Farm

-- News to set pulses racing – Google’s going gaga for your personal health data.  

Hot on the heels of the Silicon Valley giant announcing its intention to take ownership of the world’s favourite wearable device – Fitbit (and the personal health data that comes with it), reports have surfaced that Google is in cahoots with Ascension, the second-largest healthcare system in the US, harvesting the personal health information of millions of US patients, in the name of “improving health outcomes”.

The story, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, outlines an initiative – called Project Nightingale – which aims to develop new medical software Google says will reduce costs and save lives.

Insiders say at least 150 Google employees have access to data for millions of patients, including their health histories, names, and dates of birth. The data also includes lab results, diagnoses and hospitalisation records.

And guess what – it’s legal under federal law, which allows hospitals and business partners to share data if the information is used “only to help the covered entity carry out its health care functions.”

Ah, that’s OK then.

Google won’t sell your personal data, right?

Erm, not entirely true. Google supplies data to support targeted advertising – and some of those ads turn up in apps and on websites. So far so good. But as data spreads to other places it starts to leak, because some of those apps come with terms and conditions (who reads those) that pave the way for app makers to capture personal data, which is easily correlated with other data (such as Google’s). So when the data Google supplies is added to the targeting mix, a detailed picture can often be drawn of an individual’s interests, purchases, and, ah, health status.

If pain persists, consult your doctor. Later, Google will suggest a range of remedies.