Google is engaged in a secret project with one of the country’s largest health-care systems to collect and crunch the detailed personal health information of millions of Americans across 21 states, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing “people familiar with the matter and internal documents.”
Rob Copeland for The Wall Street Journal:
The initiative, code-named “Project Nightingale,” appears to be the largest in a series of efforts by Silicon Valley giants to gain access to personal health data and establish a toehold in the massive health-care industry.
Google began the effort last year with St. Louis-based Ascension, the second-largest health system in the U.S., with the data sharing accelerating over this summer and fall, the documents show. The data involved in Project Nightingale pertains to lab results, doctor diagnoses and hospitalization records, among other categories, and amounts to a complete health history, including patient names and dates of birth.
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, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents…
A Google spokeswoman said the project is fully compliant with federal health law and includes robust protections for patient data.
MacDailyNews Take: Google is engaged in a secret project to collect detailed personal data? Shocking!
Yet another reason not to buy a Fitbit, unless you want Google to have your steps, exercise data, heart rates, sleep patterns, weight, Fitbit friends, etc. for free.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “TJ” for the heads up.