Google accused of ‘trust demolition’ over health app

The Streams app to be taken over by Google is saving nurses hours each day, the Royal Free Hospital says

A controversial health app developed by artificial intelligence firm DeepMind will be taken over by Google, it has been revealed.

Streams was first used to send alerts in a London hospital but hit headlines for gathering data on 1.6 million patients without informing them.

DeepMind now wants the app to become an AI assistant for nurses and doctors around the world.

One expert described the move as “trust demolition”.

The news that Streams would be joining Google was announced in a DeepMind blogpost.

“Our vision is for Streams to now become an AI-powered assistant for nurses and doctors everywhere – combining the best algorithms with intuitive design, all backed up by rigorous evidence.

“The team working within Google, alongside brilliant colleagues from across the organisation, will help make this vision a reality.”

It is not only Streams that will be affected. The DeepMind Health division, which now has a partnership with 10 NHS hospitals to process medical data, will also fall under the remit of California-based Google Health.

Lawyer and privacy expert Julia Powles, who has closely followed the development of Streams, responded on Twitter: “DeepMind repeatedly, unconditionally promised to ‘never connect people’s intimate, identifiable health data to Google’.”Now it’s announced… exactly that. This isn’t transparency, it’s trust demolition,” she added. – bbc.com