Google’s Project Nightingale and Emergent Medical Data
What Other’s Health Data Says About You You know phone apps collect location, call history, social media posts, and more. These data collecting machines are perpetually improving at collecting relevant information to identify customers for selective advertisements. While this dystopian targeted advertising landscape we occupy is frightening, it is merely the tip of iceberg as to the potential of commercialization or discrimination from personal data. Data holds enormous value in our digital economy and no data holds a higher valuation than patient medical records. This data can be used by advertisers to push expensive pharmaceuticals and tailor behavioral ads to target a person’s medical conditions. This medical data can also be collected by insurance companies to calculate patient premiums. Health data influences so many aspects of our lives and our identity. A diagnoses could subject us to lifestyle changes or life-long treatments. For those not wanting to announce an underlying m