Google almost made 100,000 chest X-rays public — until it realized personal data could be exposed

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Google almost made 100,000 chest X-rays public — until it realized personal data could be exposed (The Washington Post)

  • Following increased scrutiny due to the announcement of Google’s strategic partnership with Ascension, the Washington Post has published details on a failed arrangement between the tech giant and the National Institutes of Health in 2017.
  • The cancelled research project reportedly included on more than 100,000 chest X-ray images provided to Google by the NIH.
  • According to an anonymous source and emails obtained by the Post through a Freedom of Information Act request, Google was reportedly days from publicly posting these images before being stopped by the NIH due to concerns that many contained identifiable details.
  • The anonymous source stressed that Google researchers did not obtain legal patient information privacy agreements throughout the effort, highlighting the potential pitfalls of tech giants entering the world of sensitive health data.

Analysis and Comments

  • The spotlight on Google’s (healthcare) privacy practice seems to only be getting brighter lately and isn’t showing any signs of letting off.
  • Following the criticism and concerns raised about both Google’s FitBit acquisition and its strategic partnership with hospital and assisted living network Ascension, Google has since released statements insisting that no patient data is being used to sell ads, or being coupled with either its own consumer data or data from other customers it may be working with in healthcare (a list that includes the Cleveland Clinic, Hunterdon Healthcare, and McKesson).
  • The key issue here is not that Google is doing anything potentially illegal (third parties compiling patient data is common & legal among healthcare providers and analytics tech firms – as long as patients have given consent by signing a common HIPAA form, which most have done knowingly or not).
  • Instead, the problem according to a growing number of data scientists and healthcare experts is that the same computing advances that allow the aggregation of millions of de-identified patient files into a dossier also make it increasingly possible to re-identify those files.
  • With Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and other tech giants increasingly entering the healthcare arena and the number of digital health deals on the rise, this is unlikely to remain an isolated issue.


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