Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Ready To Get Into Healthcare
New submitter Ted_Margaris_Chicago sends a report from Reuters indicating Facebook will be adding healthcare features to their social network.
The company is exploring creating online "support communities" that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments. A small team is also considering new "preventative care" applications that would help people improve their lifestyles. In recent months, the sources said, the social networking giant has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps. Facebook is still in the idea-gathering stage, the people said.
The article notes two reasons in particular that spurred Facebook to this course of action. First, the day that Facebook let people share their organ donor status, the U.S. saw a 21-fold increase in people registering to be organ donors. Second, they noticed users with chronic conditions had a tendency to search Facebook for advice.
And everything you hold dear.
First, the day that Facebook let people share their organ donor status, the U.S. saw a 21-fold increase in people registering to be organ donors."
Now they only need a motorcycle.
" Second, they noticed users with chronic conditions had a tendency to search Facebook for advice. "
Must be "stultia gravis" cases
Yea... no thanks. With all their privacy issues, I have no intention of giving them healthcare data.
Because when you're looking for highly accurate, trustworthy information, you think of Facebook!
" saw a 21-fold increase in people registering to be organ donors. Second, they noticed users with chronic conditions had a tendency to search Facebook for advice. "
So they discovered that people use facebook. That doesn't make it a suitable medical advice hub or anything more than an ice bucket challenge portal.
the advice "never get medical or legal advice from the internets"?
Now the struggle for relevance begins.
...keep the comments section on Esquire's Politics Blog working, no way I trust them with anything regarding health and medicine.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Looking forward to Facebook posting videos of my colonoscopy!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Realizing that when people are sick,they like to eat at McDonalds and that fast food potentially contributes to obesity McDonalds today announced their initiative to get into healthcare. Now, when placing an order, the crew will be trained to ask questions about the order takers health and healthier alternatives will be suggested instead. Customers who refuse to give over their health information as stored on their facebook account or ACA insurance card will not be served. McDonald's corporate CEO said "This is not unlike a bartender refusing to serve alcoholics. We see this as a good thing for us to give back to the community and help further civilization's goals and a healthier, happier people. Let's move it!"
"...they noticed users with chronic conditions had a tendency to search Facebook for advice."
Really?
The same social network that convinced iMorons to use the kitchen microwave to charge their shiny new iPhones?
Since they mentioned chronic conditions, I can only assume they were suffering from chronic stupidity and one hell of a rash of ignorance.
This should go over well. Have fun with HIPAA too.
My organs would only be for sale...Laws be damned.
... big pharma will love this. Facebook is getting to be like the goddam department of motor vehicles where you have to register all your stuff.
People need to realize Facebook is not the IRS. It's an ENTERTAINMENT site. Taking it seriously is a big mistake.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Good christ can Facebook please die a horrendous death?
747 sized drones to provide global wireless internet!?!?!!?!?! OCULUS RIFT? And now CROWDSOURCING HEALTHCARE INFO FROM PEOPLE WHO AREN'T DOCTORS? It's not distributed computing you fucks, this does nothing but put people's very private health information on very public and hackable Facebook.
Just fuck.
As somebody with a chronic condition, I'm in a group or two on facebook about it. Its nice to get advice from real people who have dealt with things before. However, I find that 85% of people that are in the group usually post things akin to "I'm vomiting blood, have horrible pain and high fever, what should I do?" Erm... maybe go to the ER? While its not a bad thing to use to seek out some general advice (especially if you take anything you hear with a grain of salt), a lot of people use it as a substitute for real medical care or as a way to justify their fears of not going in to see a doctor, and that's terrifying.
Last I checked selling health information was highly illegal. Since Facebook anonymizes nothing. In other news, Facebook now provides employers and insurance companies with vital heal statistics to increase the effectiveness of their risk assessments when considering employees and clients.
Cue the facebook donorlist killer ;)
I can't possibly envision ever making Facebook privy to ANY health issues whatsoever. They would gladly shill that information out for profit - undoubtibly why they're doing it. With something such as health issues which are so confidential, making Facebook privy to any of this would be absolutely terrible.
Maybe they can use tech to force you to login only while actively using an exercycle, elliptical machine, treadmill, or via mobile while actually walking/jogging....
fucked if I'm letting Facebook at it as well.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
The mental health section should just be a page that says "get off Facebook."
Preventative Care Tip 1) Use less Facebook, get outside, and be social in person.
I can see it now hoards of people gathering around with straining ears to hear the call of the majestic space quack and his new dietary supplements.
Available now for 4 easy payments of $19.99.
"There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics"
I find it so contradictory that the same mass of people that seek booths in order to hide who they vote for, are so willing to hand out information that's much more personal to a site like facebook.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
Thankfully, greed may be the downfall of Facebook. They will gather up tons of medical information, thinking they are savy tricksters. They will include proper disclaimers and then sell the information to the highest bidder. The highest bidder will use the information to gain more value than they paid by extracting money from those who provided information. Sort of like legal blackmail.
Then people will get pissed. It is one thing to mess with peoples "privacy" regarding relationships, likes, and dislikes but it is a whole different ball game to mess with medical privacy, especially in the older demographics.
Older demographics are what is making Facebook "sticky" - mess with their numerous, embarrassing, medical problems and you are in for a world of hurt. Youngsters can, will, and have changed platforms on a whim.
I can see where this is going.. Account deactivated.
"they noticed users with chronic conditions had a tendency to search Facebook for advice."
Oh god...
The same people who think microwaves charge phones and that bending is a feature...
Oh god...
Facebook don't give a monkey's toss about anyone. They are not trying to engender valid discussions. They are going to monetise this. Full stop. For-profit companies do nothing -- nothing -- in the best interests of their users. This is about dissemination of data. Period. I trust no organisation for which the first charter is profit. Facebook has proven over and over again they are not to be trusted. They change their privacy settings on a whim, breaking existing settings, adding new ones that don't default to on. No, thank you.
Marketers hate me and my kind. I have no social profiles, no online presence at all. Google me and find nothing. I have cultivated this because I believe in due time there will be a fallout from the lack of privacy.
People laughed when I said the iWatch's biometric tracking would be a "requirement" to run the facebook iWatch app or a myriad of other apps. It is painful that this is a reasonably foreseeable direction for these companies.
Please tell me more, send to AOL user UnderARock25688. Oh, my grandson just faxed me about it. It's like another AOL. Well thanks, but I'm happy here.
From the social network that outlawed breastfeeding comes a new service for helping people track their health records. Christ what a load of bunk.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Does anyone here trust Facebook? Seriously.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
"Your medical history has been shared 153,473 times."
"Your cancer has 15,429 new messages."
who needs THAT crap?
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
Albert Einstein
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
This is the next logical step for the Facebook crowd.
A little nitrous to speed the race for the bottom.
First, the day that Facebook let people share their organ donor status, the U.S. saw a 21-fold increase in people registering to be organ donors."
Now they only need a motorcycle.
An opportunity for an organized organ harvesting group to profit from a surge in "willing" donors. All they need is a sound-proofed cargo van equipped with minimal surgical tools, extract the organ, open the door to dispose of the donor, and deposit the cash in the stock market. Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase must be salivating.
It'd track the hours you spent sitting on your butt on FB, vs actually doing something which would be healthy ... And then... Wait for it... not report that to you, as those hours represent revenue $ from ads...
1. They work for free, organizing all their personal info and putting it online
2. They give their valuable personal info to Facebook, which then sells it making Zuck a BILLIONAIRE
3. They sell-out their friends and relatives by putting their info online for Zuck to sell
4. As they help Zuck get rich, he uses the money to lobby the US government to import foreign workers to replace them and push down their wages
If you put your health info online you can kiss your future "goodbye"; Soon car insurance companies will look to see if you have a condition that might make you a higher risk; Life insurance companies will see if you and your relatives have health risks that make you a poorer risk; employers will be able to look and see if you are likely to need more time off or have higher health costs etc. As you put family info online you endanger your relatives as well in addition to providing every would-be hacker on Earth with easier access to things like "mother's maiden name", "first pet", "highschool" etc that are used by various institutions as security information.
The internet works just FINE without Facebook - it's like the worst POSSIBLE form of the old bury-the-world-in-free-CDs AOL... the Internet for stupid people