Google's DeepMind and UK Hospitals Made Illegal Deal For Health Data, Says Watchdog (theverge.com)

A deal between UK hospitals and Google's AI subsidiary DeepMind "failed to comply with data protection law," according to the UK's data watchdog. From a report: The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) made its ruling today after a year-long investigation into the agreement, which saw DeepMind process 1.6 million patient records belonging to UK citizens for the Royal Free Trust -- a group of three London hospitals. The deal was originally struck in 2015, and has since been superseded by a new agreement. At the time, DeepMind and the Royal Free said the data was being shared to develop an app named Streams, which would alert doctors if patients were at risk from a condition called acute kidney injury. An investigation by the New Scientist revealed that the terms of the agreement were more broad than hand been originally implied. DeepMind has since made new deals to deploy Streams in other UK hospitals.

Comments

Watson

[ls671]

Now, all is missing is Watson joining the dance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The same lesson learned

[Errol backfiring]

And the same lesson is learned over and over again: Google got away with it. What are laws worth if the big privacy criminals have no reason whatsoever to follow them?

Re:The same lesson learned

[swillden]

And the same lesson is learned over and over again: Google got away with it.

To be clear, this was DeepMind, which is owned by Google, not Google. From the article:

The contract was always clear that no private data would ever be shared with DeepMind’s parent company Google, which bought the firm in 2014.

Also, it's really Royal Free Trust which is at fault. The core problem here was that patients weren't made aware that their data would be used for this particular purpose, and it was the hospital group who had contact with the patients and access to their data, not DeepMind. Indeed, the ICO's primary immediate action here is to ask the hospital group "to sign a new agreement committing it to act in accordance with the law and commission an audit of the 2015 trial".

While I think DeepMind should also exercise due diligence and take care that its partners aren't breaking the law, the real responsibility here lies with the organization that has the patient data, the hospitals. If DeepMind had violated the terms of the agreement and used the data for purposes other than it told Royal Free Trust, and gotten away with it, then you'd have had grounds for your complaint. As it is, if you want to sharpen your pitchforks, it's the hospitals you should go after, since DeepMind did nothing other than what the hospitals agreed to let it do. And it's also worth noting that no one here is claiming that there was any harm to patients, just not enough care to follow the disclosure requirements.

Re:The same lesson learned

[swillden]

What makes you think Google got away with this? The watchdog's assessment that the deal was in violation came today. They haven't yet been charged or assessed a penalty.

It appears to me from the article that the penalty has been assessed... to the Royal Free Trust, the hospital group who had the data and the legal obligation to protect it from disclosure without patient approval. The ICO has asked hospital group to "to sign a new agreement committing it to act in accordance with the law and commission an audit of the 2015 trial."

There doesn't appear to be any allegation that DeepMind did anything other than what it was authorized to do by the hospital group who provided the data, so it doesn't look like DeepMind has any culpability. The agreement between DeepMind and Royal Free Trust didn't meet the requirements of the law, so the ICO has asked Royal Free Trust to commit to being more careful with how it shares patient data in the future.

Anyone wanna make bets?

[ausekilis]

I give it 6 months until those same folks start getting ads for medications of deepmind-guessed ailments.

Re:Anyone wanna make bets?

[grep -v '.*' *]

Ailments like paranoia, because you feel someone is watching you?

Between Google, the NSA, and your nosy next door neighbor, there IS someone watching you, probably right now. And heck, staying home with the windows closed doesn't do any good either.

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."

But the good news is that Amazon Dash Button is now linked with your pharmacy* so sedatives are now just a physical click away. Delivered by drones. In an hour. Straight to your cell phones' location.

* That means Amazon also bought your pharmacy when they gobbled up Whole Paycheck^W Foods. Forget that old original grumpy, nosy, and smelly pharmacist; stop by and chat with our new friendly virtual personality -- now with a face! Or even better, just talk to yourself; Alexa's always listening anyway.
-----

No, I'm not at all paranoid. Why are you looking at me like that??

Re:Anyone wanna make bets?

[swillden]

I give it 6 months until those same folks start getting ads for medications of deepmind-guessed ailments.

DeepMind doesn't do advertising, and the contract never allowed any sharing of patient data with Google.

Results?

[bill_mcgonigle]

What were the outcomes? Were any kidneys saved?