{"id":854,"date":"2019-11-17T10:41:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T15:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/?p=854"},"modified":"2019-12-24T07:09:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T12:09:22","slug":"will-google-get-away-with-grabbing-50m-americans-health-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"Will Google Get Away with Grabbing 50m Americans’ Health Records?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Will Google Get Away with Grabbing 50m Americans' Health Records?<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tF<\/strong>ew things are certain in the American healthcare system \u2013 except for the paperwork. The tedious ritual of signing forms authorizing new providers to access our medical history is the result of a rarity for Americans: thanks to the first amendment, we have few rights and little expectation of privacy, except when it comes to our medical records. Even doctors who have our best interests at heart must get permission to access our data under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Hipaa).

\n\nSo it was truly shocking to learn this week that a business partnership between Google and Ascension, a major hospital chain and health insurer, has resulted in the transfer of 50 million Americans\u2019 most intimate medical records to the Silicon Valley company, without the knowledge or consent of those 50 million patients. Even more alarming, the records are not de-identified, and a whistleblower disclosed to the Guardian serious concerns about the program, including that individual staffers have downloaded patient records.

\n\nIt took less than 48 hours for federal regulators to announce an investigation into the partnership. Google and Ascension both claim that they are fully compliant with Hipaa, but there are few reasons for the public to trust them. The combination of a data-hungry advertiser and a cost-cut-seeking health insurer is truly dystopian. The fact that a whistleblower was disturbed enough to risk their job is alarming.

\n\nOne of the peculiarities of the backlash to big tech over the past few years has been the degree to which Google has remained unscathed despite engaging in behaviors similar to those that have left Facebook\u2019s reputation in tatters. I tend to believe that this is because Google\u2019s products are genuinely useful, making its surveillance of our online activities seem like a better bargain than Facebook\u2019s monopoly on our personal relationships, which often feels more like a hostage situation than an equal trade-off.

\n\nBut getting in bed with an industry that profits by denying healthcare \u2013 and doing so in a way that at the very least appears underhanded \u2013 could be a step too far for some customers.

\n\nFeature? Or bug?<\/strong>
\nA friend of mine recently sent me what she thought was a hot news tip. She\u2019d been scrolling through Facebook on her phone when she was served an advertisement for \u201canti-pigmentation sunglasses\u201d \u2013 big black shades that look like a hipper version of the throwaway glasses they give out at the eye doctor. The ad claimed that these sunglasses could reverse melasma, a type of facial hyper-pigmentation that frequently occurs during pregnancy.

\n\nMy friend, a mother of three, does have melasma below her eyes, she told me, but no one knows because she covers it with foundation and has never posted a makeup-free photo on social media. \u201cThis might mean that Facebook is spying through the camera even when you\u2019re just looking at it,\u201d she said. \u201cI know this sounds crazy, but they do a lot of crazy stuff.\u201d

\n\nI rolled my eyes. The conspiracy theory that Facebook is listening to people\u2019s conversations through their smartphones has been around for ages, providing tech reporters like myself ample opportunity to feel superior as we explain to friends and family that Facebook\u2019s vast data collection makes such individualized eavesdropping wholly unnecessary. It\u2019s much more likely that Facebook just knows that you\u2019re a woman with kids, I texted, smugly.

\n\nImagine my chagrin when, just 24 hours later, Facebook confirmed that a bug was activating iPhone cameras as users scrolled their feeds. The company says that the camera was only ever in \u201cpreview mode\u201d and that it has seen no evidence of photos or videos being uploaded due to the bug.

\n\nBut it\u2019s too late for my friend. She\u2019s more convinced than ever that Facebook is looking at her through her phone \u2013 and Facebook\u2019s PR response isn\u2019t exactly helping. I emailed the company asking for a definitive statement that Facebook does not use smartphone cameras or image analysis to derive ad targeting categories. Here is the response: \u201cFacebook does not use your phone\u2019s camera to inform ads or what you see in News Feed.\u201d


Contributor: The Guardian US<\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Google Get Away with Grabbing 50m Americans’ Health Records? Few things are certain in the American healthcare system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}