Google might have your healthcare records, even if you and your doctor didn't consent

[Geee]

Washington Examoiner

Big Tech has come a long way from basic platforms that hosted our high school reunion photos or searched for the nearest takeout place. 

 

Big Tech now tracks our locations, our purchasing habits, reads our emails, follows where we go on the internet and how often, what we say in our homes, and they’re trying to gain access to our financial data, as well. Now, thanks to a partnership with hospital-chain Ascension and the purchase of the fitness tracker company, Fitbit, Google owns the health data of tens of millions of people.

Chillingly, they did this on the Ascension side without the consent of the patient or the doctor. 

Google and Ascension claim they are both following the privacy regulations outlined under HIPAA, which allows medical providers to share patient data, including entire medical records, with “business associates,” who are then required to abide by HIPAA’s policies. Should Google violate HIPAA’s laws, the liability would fall on Ascension. 

Individuals would have very little knowledge if their rights were being violated, however, considering that neither they nor their doctor gave consent, or were even informed, that their complete health history, name, and date of birth was being entrusted to Google.