Dr. Google Has Your Health Data

Google is partnering with one of the largest hospital systems to collect, store, and analyze our health data. What could go wrong? Action Alert!
Google is partnering with Ascension, which operates 150 hospitals in 20 states, and could eventually upload all patient data to their cloud computing platform, according to news reports. Given Google’s breaches of patient privacy in the past, this could be a disaster.
Google’s record on maintaining the privacy of our data is atrocious. The company was fined $170 million by the FTC for collecting children’s personal information on YouTube and using it to target them with ads. More to the point, Google and the University of Chicago are currently being sued in a potential class action lawsuit for allegedly sharing patient data without first stripping sensitive information such as doctor’s notes and identifiable date stamps. In 2017, Google was on the verge of publicly posting more than 100,000 images of chest X-rays with personal information still on the images. It took a last-minute warning from the National Institutes of Health, who had provided the images, to cancel the project.
Google is investing heavily in the pharmaceutical sector. The company has a pharmaceutical division headed by a former GlaxoSmithKlein executive and has launched two pharmaceutical companies, Calico and Verily Life Sciences. Google is also buying FitBit, the fitness tracker, for $2.1 billion, which will give them even more of our data.
Google will have a frightening amount of our consumer and health data. The incentives for abuse are clear— leveraging this data to make their other investments, especially in the drug sector, more profitable!
The stated purpose of the initiative is to improve patient outcomes and give providers more insights to improve treatments. Other tech giants like Apple (like the Apple Watch, which can now take an electrocardiogram), Microsoft (health record sharing software, for example), and Amazon (which is equipping its artificial intelligence Alexa product with healthcare functions)  are rapidly moving in on the healthcare space. Clearly, these tech companies see a tremendous opportunity to monetize our health data. Will we sit back and let them?
Action Alert! Write to Congress and the FTC, telling them to prevent Google from gathering our health data. Please send your message immediately.

92 comments

  2. My Medical Records are only can be obtained by my Written Permission only. If they do provide it then they are violating the law and Must be sued!!

  4. We do not want our health data collected by those outside the medical field.

  7. When one goes for medical treatment one used to be able to trust that the information would only be shared with other medical professionals on a need to know basis. That trust is now be undermined and I don’t like it one bit. My personal information is just that personal and I for one don’t feel the need to share it with strangers which could adversely affect my health and healthcare treatment. The information is a danger in the wrong hands. The gathering of information about anyone’s health and care is criminal.

  8. Google can’t be trusted with our sensitive information. They have shown to be manipulators of information with their unfair algorithms selling what should be objective to advertisers.

  9. This is a gross violation of privacy. I do not want google having control of my health records

  10. Do NOT allow Google to partner with Ascension!! Google has shown they can’t be trusted with such sensitive, private information!

  11. How can we trust Google with sensitive information. We can’t!! They have chosen not to be objective when it comes to information by using algorithms and selling advertising.

  13. This data gathering is highly inappropriate and very concerning. Neither patients nor doctors have been notified. At least 150 Google employees already have access to much of the data on tens of millions of patients. STOP.

  14. Please prevent Google from gathering my health data. Please note this is becoming imminent and I do not trust their privacy-retention policies or practice.

  19. I absolutely DO NOT give consent to Google or anyone else who is not a health provider to collect and handle my medical data.
    The very idea is outrageous and a major invasion of privacy, whichever way they try to rationalize it.

  20. Act to prevent Google from gathering our health data! Google has a bad track record on privacy, and should not be trusted with patient data.

  21. Prevent incursions on HIPPA information by Google and other tech companies. This is not acceptable that health data can be collected by this means.

  22. Google is partnering with Ascension, which operates 150 hospitals in 20 states, and could eventually upload all patient data to their cloud computing platform, according to news reports. Given Google’s breaches of patient privacy in the past, this could be a disaster.
    Google’s record on maintaining the privacy of our data is atrocious. The company was fined $170 million by the FTC for collecting children’s personal information on YouTube and using it to target them with ads. More to the point, Google and the University of Chicago are currently being sued in a potential class action lawsuit for allegedly sharing patient data without first stripping sensitive information such as doctor’s notes and identifiable date stamps. In 2017, Google was on the verge of publicly posting more than 100,000 images of chest X-rays with personal information still on the images. It took a last-minute warning from the National Institutes of Health, who had provided the images, to cancel the project.
    Google is investing heavily in the pharmaceutical sector. The company has a pharmaceutical division headed by a former GlaxoSmithKlein executive and has launched two pharmaceutical companies, Calico and Verily Life Sciences. Google is also buying FitBit, the fitness tracker, for $2.1 billion, which will give them even more of our data.
    Google will have a frightening amount of our consumer and health data. The incentives for abuse are clear— leveraging this data to make their other investments, especially in the drug sector, more profitable!
    The stated purpose of the initiative is to improve patient outcomes and give providers more insights to improve treatments. Other tech giants like Apple (like the Apple Watch, which can now take an electrocardiogram), Microsoft (health record sharing software, for example), and Amazon (which is equipping its artificial intelligence Alexa product with healthcare functions) are rapidly moving in on the healthcare space. Clearly, these tech companies see a tremendous opportunity to monetize our health data. Prevent Google from gathering our health data.

  26. Please restrict Google from accessing health data! All progress creates with Hipaa to create privacy will be lost if health data is given to Google. It should be entirely illegal for such companies to access any private health data!

  27. We do not want Google getting any of our personal health information! This is a blatent misuse of power & individuals private medical info. Citizens are sick of large corporations stealing our privacy! This needs to STOP

  28. Please prevent Google rom gathering our health data. Google is becoming too powerful. Google has too much data on individuals without their consent. Stop Google!

  30. Granting Google the ability to acces health data is a definite violation of HIPPA. As a citizen, I do NOT want Google to have access to ANY of my health data, nor do they have a complelling interest to do so. PLEASE act to prevent Google from even more invation of our privacy!!!
    Thank you!

  31. This is a breach of privacy! I am horrified. Google has no business having access to ANYONE’s records!

  34. THIS HAD BETTER BE A BIG MISTAKE, MY PERSONAL INFO IS NOT FOR SALE AND IF I FIND OUT THAT ANY OF MY PERSONAL HEALTH FILES HAS BEEN STOLEN BY GOOGLE I WILL SUE THE HELL OUT OF THIS SCAMMING, CORRUPT COMPANY!!! ALONG WITH MILLIONS OF OTHERS! NOT HAPPENING! DESPICABLE, DISGUSTING AND EVIL!

  35. My Health history is between me and my doctors and is nobody else’s business. Do not allow this to happen.

  36. I strongly object to Google having access to my personal health information. And you should too! Please please please prevent this from ever happening, now or in the future.

  37. There is no privacy anymore and it infuriates me. 170 million dollars is a drop in the bucket and we as citizens/patients ultimately pay and pay again!

  38. Let’s have them agree to a 1 million usd fine, per breach of privacy per person, with 90% of the fine going to the person affected and the rest to the state where she/he resides.
    Then, they can have a go at monetizing our health data.

  40. As someone that has a terminal disease, the last thing I want or need is be spamed by quacks selling snake oil cures.

  43. No more information sharing for profit at the expense of patients’ rights to privacy!!!!!

  44. This is too much. Nothing is private anymore. We need everyone to help put a stop to this.

  45. Our privacy and confidential information, especially including our health info, must be protected and kept confidential.

  47. I do NOT give permission for Google or any other entity to have access in any form to my medical data. I give permission only to the medical facility and/or my doctors who are providing my healthcare to have access to my medical data. NO to Google gathering health data!

  48. The idea of putting all you eggs in one basket isn’t wise. Only people who agree should be included. I for one do not
    want my medical data anywhere except at the office or hospital that I have given it to. I avoid Google because of
    their spying. I do not approve of Google collecting my or my families information with my consent.

  49. I am outraged to have my medical information available to anyone with a dollar. I feel that it is a breech of patient client confidentiality as well as immoral and illegal.

  50. Security online has become a frighteningly real issue and no company seems to have impregnable security. less security in order to enrich big pharmaceutical companies is not in the consumers interest.

  51. This is an outrageous concept. I DO NOT WANT MY PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO ANYONE OTHER THAN TO WHOM I DESIGNATE. And it won’t be Google orApple! PERIOD.

  52. One’s personal information is just that—personal! This is not being done to help patients! It will be done to pad the pockets of the CEO’s, etc. This is disgusting and illegal. There are health care laws in place for privacy! No one is above the law!!

  53. Please do not allow Google to have access to the health data of individuals. There is a huge potential for misuse.

  54. Ok. This is too much. Google for directions and internet searches is one thing. But this flat out is a invasion of privacy. This isn’t even legal, it goes against the HIPPA Law. Nobody in their right mind will let this happen.

  56. I object to the gathering of private health information by any business, including Google. Please legislate to keep private health information private. How much of your health information, or that of your family members, do you want Google to collect?

  57. I filled out your poll but you demanded I give YOU my information for YOUR website?No offence to you,but I never give more than what’s there,already to anyone.All our information is already out there.I have had every e mail account hacked at least once.G mail 3X.Canged passwords for anything sensitive each time.If they can access my computer,It’d be very bad.For me.

  59. Google has no business with ANY of my personal info. Period. This needs to be stopped immediately. The potential for abuse, scams and fraud is monumental.

  60. Hello,
    I am writing with my concern that companies like GOOGLE, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple are gaining access to our private health records and without my explicit permission which I don’t give. Don’t allow this to happen. Please protect our right to privacy. Thank you

  63. This is some scary stuff. What about HIPPA laws? Shouldn’t Ascension be fined for divulging patient information?

  64. I am thoroughly opposed to anyone other than myself to take care of my medical information. Stop this insanity. Our information is out there too much as it is. In this world where information is stolen online almost daily, let’s not open up another avenue for a large data breach.

  65. Google has no right to our health data and certainly would not keep it confidential

  67. I am very much opposed to Google being allowed to gather the health records of Americans, or anyone around the world! Google has proven themselves to be an extremely anti-American, anti-freedom, anti-ethical company! They have colluded with Communist China against the interests of the United States of America, they are working with China to create a Communist search engine complete with a “Social Credit Score” system, and they are trying to bring that same Marxist plan here to the USA! Google interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and I believe they have interfered in many, many more since then! Google is already working diligently to unseat President Trump and as many Republicans as they can in the upcoming 2020 elections, which makes Google the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! They are trying to get as many Marxist Democrats electe3d in this country as possible, so they can destroy America from within, and cooperate with the EVIL U.N. to enact Agenda 2030 to do so. They may eventually earn the moniker of being a domestic/digital terrorist organization, due to the way that they conduct themselves. The very last thing that Google should be allowed to do is to gather people’s health records without their knowledge or permission. They are no doubt gathering this information so that they can gain control over those people’s lives, and in preparation to launch a similar Marxist “Social Credit Score” here, in the USA, as they did in China.
    I implore anyone left in Congress that has a shred of decency and humanity in them, (so no Demonrats, then) to do all that you can to STOP Google from their megalomania-cal behavior! They need to be sued and shut down for illicitly gathering the health records of Americans! They need to be investigated, prosecuted and shut down for how they interfered in the 2016 elections, actively, purposely steering voters towards Hitlery Clinton, and badmouthing Donald Trump at every opportunity in a brazen attempt to sway American voters! Google needs to be shut down completely, starting now, and going through the upcoming election season, if not permanently, to make sure they cannot interfere in the presidential & Congressional elections. Google’s loyalties to Marxist countries, and their hostility to America needs to be investigated, and actions taken to extract them from the American online internet experience!

  68. Collecting my private info belongs to me and no one else. If my husband can’t have it, no one can.

  71. I am totally against Google being able to gather private health records! This is against the public’s right to privacy! And goes against the HIPA LAWS!

  72. You should also point out to the readers that David Feinberg, M.D., was formerly CEO of Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System from 2015 to 2019. Geisinger has settled multiple medical malpractice lawsuits out of court to avoid bad publicity. The most recent cases that I found were a small boy who died of septic shock while in their care in 2018. Settlement amount was $6.5M. Another two settlements for $4.5M and $800k in 2016. There are more…. many more.

  73. I will not consent to my private health information being collected. I am a sovereign being.

  75. Nothing will stop this trend towards ever greater exploitation until we end our system of legalized bribery that allows government ownership by extreme wealth. That is the root of the problem that must be addressed.

  76. This date must be analyzed like Census Data is analyzed. By using this method an individual’s information is grouped in large blocks with no way to pull out his data. It’s not complicated. If laws are written to treat all collections, databases, etc. the same as Census Data, then I would be in favor. We must also write laws that define who may see an individuals content.
    It’s not complicated.

  80. our healthcare is already in such a bad way…how can you allow anything else to go wrong! stop the madness!

  81. This is Bullshit!! I am sick of hearing of data breaches, spying and stealing and selling of our information! We are forced into this computer age and have no protection from the vultures who only want to exploit and degrade our personal information and integrity! It just burns my ass to see these big tech giants suck the life blood out of us and sell their selves out to Big Pharma. I am hating technology more every day. I for one will not be your slave. I will refuse to COMPLY!!!!

  82. I can’t even get information about my sick husband or mother and you want GOOGLE to have access to my medical stuff? I DON’T THINK SO! [angry face]

  83. Google is just set the stage for a One World Order for the last days before Jesus Christ comes to catch His Bride (The True Believers) away.

  85. Please take action to stop Google from gathering our health data.
    Currently Google seeks to partner with Ascension, which operates 150 hospitals in 20 states, and could eventually upload all patient data to their cloud computing platform, according to news reports. Given Google’s breaches of patient privacy in the past, this would be a disaster for health privacy.
    Please do the right thing and help derail this abuse of patient data. Its clearly an end-run around HIPAA laws.
    Thank you,

  86. My health data is private and not for sale by Google or this hospital consortium! They do not have my consent to obtain any health data! These two companies have a horrific track record for data breach and that is well known! This needs to be stopped now and forever. The potential for damage to individuals involved in a breach of security is to high especially since the only reason they want the information is profit. As we have seen in the past individual rights go right out the window when they smell profit!
    The lawsuits will be piling up I assure you if you do not act now.

  87. Is there NO PRIVACY any more? I don’t want anything and everything about me posted on the Cloud. Ever. Grrr.

  90. Please take action to prevent Google from gathering people’s health data. This is a huge privacy breech and needs to be addressed to protect sensitive data that can be used for no good.
    Thank you for your action.

  91. No one should have access to our healthcare information except our individual physicians – period!

  92. I am bemused!
    WE are told by Company’s that “under the Privacy act” we cannot tell you something.
    Clearly Google are paying Bribes left right and centre – especially to Government in all its forms!

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