Hospitals are giving your health data to tech companies

What if I told you, that Google and other tech companies may have access to your private health information, unbeknownst to you or your doctor, and that it’s perfectly legal?

Right now, Google is crunching the health data of millions of people across 21 states, in an effort to develop artificial intelligence that can help suggest changes in a person’s care.

“Project Nightingale,” as it’s code-named, isn’t the only project of its kind but it appears to be the largest. Other tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon have their own.

The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act allows hospitals to share such data with their business partners, without telling you, so long as the information is used “only to help the covered entity carry out its health care functions.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-ascension-privacy-idUSKBN1XL2AT

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