Google’s ‘Project Nightingale’ program was collecting health data of millions of Americans, which has prompted a federal inquiry to be launched. According to The Wall Street Journal, the probe was initiated on Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. Roger Severino, the office director, stated that they would be focused on obtaining more information about the company’s mass collection of the medical records of patients. The purpose of this investigation is to ensure that the records collected are fully compliant with the protections outlined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or HIPAA.
No comment was made by the Department of Health and Human Services. The data is being collected under a new partnership between Ascension, one of the largest non-profit and health systems in the country, and Google. It was confirmed by the two companies that they had joined hands for analyzing health data of the patients and give new suggestions and insights to health care providers for patient care. The project was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday. The partnership between Ascension and Google will see different areas of the former’s health data integrated in the cloud.
In a blog post published on Monday, Google said that this project was a business arrangement for using the latest technology to help a provider, just like the company is known to do with other healthcare providers as well. According to the Journal, the patient data was accessible to at least 150 Google employees. However, Google insisted that they were following all regulatory standards, like HIPAA. The search engine giant further added that Ascension’s data would only be used for providing the services outlined in the agreement and wouldn’t be used for any other purpose. It also added that they would not combine any patient data with the consumer data they had available.
Shortly after The Wall Street Journal published the report, statements were made by both companies. The sensitive nature of the health data was acknowledged by Google. Ascension, which is located in St. Louis and has 2,600 facilities spread over in almost two dozen states, stated that their partnership with the company was in accordance with the law. Nonetheless, according to the reports, some Ascension employees are wondering how patient data is being collected and shared by Google. This is not the first time that Google has been scrutinized for handling user data.
A record penalty of $170 million had been paid by Google to the Federal Trade Commission for settling accusations concerning YouTube. It was claimed that the video-sharing platform had broken the law when it knowingly sold and tracked advertisements targeting children. Google’s drive into healthcare comes as more and more tech companies are expressing interest in this market, including big names like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. All of these companies have launched their own initiatives for modernizing the healthcare system in the country in recent years. This has also prompted Google to move into the market.
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