Poll: Would you trust a tech company with your health data?
The digital health space is set to make a lot of cash in the coming years – and potentially prevent disease.
WITH THE RISE of tech giants and the introduction of rules such as General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the public is a lot more aware of their data footprint.
Yet the collation of personal data isn’t going anywhere and if anything it is expanding, especially when it comes to health.
Amid the rise of wearable tech, the industry is reading data and providing insights into people’s health through monitoring movement and heart rates.
Plenty of people have pointed to the use of the info to promote health and prevent disease and there have already been reports of the Apple Watch helping to save lives using heart rate data.
However, others are sceptical about tech companies motives when it comes to data collection, particularly when it comes to something sensitive such as health.
Companies such as Apple have already invested heavily in wearable tech and Google is following suit and recently announced plans to buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion.
Google is also increasing its work with healthcare providers and hit headlines last week as reports emerged in the US last week about Project Nightingale, where Google is working with Ascension, a US non-profit organisation that operates a chain of healthcare facilities.
Questions were raised as it was reported that medical data from tens of millions of patients is being transferred to Google, which the business said adheres to industry-wide regulations around data and is about helping providers with the latest tech.
Keeping this in mind, Fora is asking our readers this week: Would you trust a tech company with your health data?
