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Google Wants To Monitor Your Mental Health (telegraph.co.uk)

Posted by samzenpus on from the feeling-lucky-and-well-adjusted dept.

New submitter Alypius writes: Dr Tom Insel, the head of the NIH, will be joining Google Life Sciences to research how wearable technology, already used for monitoring physical activity and sleep, can be expanded to cover mental health issues such as depression. Dr. Insel will also be researching how to integrate tech to monitor other aspects of day-to-day living such as calorie and alcohol consumption.

6 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Shorter list - what Google doesn't want to monitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here it is:

  2. Hooray! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I, for one, definitely can't imagine how a plan by one of the world's more prominent advertising and 'consumer analytics' outfits to gather personal information about a heavily stigmatized class of disorders through a channel that will allow them to avoid any restrictions that might have applied to 'protected health information' could possibly go wrong. Seems like a great idea.

    1. Re:Hooray! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Don't worry:

      1: The data won't wind up in a ChoicePoint database which will be used by your employer's HR department to find people "at risk" and fire them. Well, with companies having the attitude of "frog-march them out now, let them sue us from a physically safe distance", finding out an employee is feeling depressed won't affect much.

      2: No health insurance company would use that info to raise rates, especially with Obamacare forcing people to pay the $400/month/person premiums or face Federal prison time. Health insurance companies are happy with the profits they are getting and would never jack up someone's premiums

      3: No politician would ever use this data to flag someone as an invalid and force them to hand any guns or other items over.

      4: This data would never be used by an ex-spouse as a way to say that the kids are in mortal danger and kill all rights completely in a divorce.

      5: No DA would ever use this data for arrests so he or she can meet their quota to keep their campaign contributions coming in from the private prison lobby. Remember: 48 states signed an agreement stating they would keep their private jails at 90% or more capacity or else pay fines by the hour. With marijuana being legalized, those bed spaces have to be filled up somehow.

      6: No judge would use this for a sentence in a case. Since mentally ill people tend to not exactly be rich in general, no judge would take advantage of that fact and pass longer sentences to keep the private prison campaign funds rolling in.

      What could possibly go wrong with companies looking for people and if they are mentally ill, then selling that info? Hey, selling stuff on people is the entire lifeblood of Web 2.0 companies, right? /sarcasm

    2. Re:Hooray! by Vasheron · · Score: 2

      Agreed. I suffer from a mental illness, and I would like to tell Google to go fuck themselves, but in all likelihood they've already mined my Gmail account and inferred my diagnosis.

  3. Can Google monitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    how many of the "refugees" are unattached single males with radical Islamic views?

  4. How innovative by Rising+Ape · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the past, believing that powerful global forces were watching your every action would have been evidence of paranoia. So I'd like to commend Google for effectively treating that delusional belief by turning it into a rational fear, and thus no longer a mental illness.