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Google’s DeepMind made illegal health data deal in the UK, watchdog says

Google’s artificial intelligence firm was allowed access to health information of 1.6 million patients to develop an app monitoring kidney disease

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Artwork used by DeepMind to illustrate the concepts of its continual learning project. Photo: DeepMind/Google

By Arjun Kharpal

A deal between Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepMind and the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) “failed to comply with data protection law”, a key British regulator said on Monday.

DeepMind — which Google acquired in 2014 — struck a deal in 2015 with the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust which runs a number of hospitals in Britain. The Google company got access to a wide range of health information from 1.6 million patients, according to the full agreement which was revealed by New Scientist in April 2016.

The deal was made to help DeepMind develop an app called Streams with the aim of monitoring patients with kidney disease. Streams would alert the right clinician when a patient’s condition deteriorates.

But New Scientist revealed that DeepMind would be getting access to other health information such as whether a patient had HIV as well as details of drug overdoses, for example, which stirred a lot of controversies.

A deal between Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepMind and the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) “failed to comply with data protection law”, a key British regulator said on Monday.

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