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I find it disingenuous that the article refers to Google as a “tech giant”. The implications are far more sinister if instead it was referred to as “advertising

I find it disingenuous that the article refers to Google as a “tech giant”. The implications are far more sinister if instead it was referred to as “advertising giant” as advertising is what is what is driving Google to acquire this data. Call it for what it is.

deadmutex 7y ago
From the article: "The company says its intentions in health are unconnected with its advertising business".
- obmelvin 7y ago
  Exactly. There is so much money to be made from healthcare service, it is a market & revenue stream totally separate from advertising, and it can provide great value to many people. There are things one could be critical of regarding their acquisition of data, etc. but I don't think it is in Google's best interest to use the data for advertising.
  - allovernow 7y ago
    Why would you trust a literal corporate mouthpiece? You think Zuckerberg cares about your privacy too? No way in hell Google isn't going to use this for advertisement. It's exactly the kind of huge free money that drives everyone else to collect data totally unrelated to their core business. Even if the intentions are benign now, there's no reason to trust they'll be so later, based on Google's track record and the typical tech mindset. Just imagine the kind of profiles you could build on people with medical data. Beyond targeted drug advertisement, medical devices, and the like, you know which people are sedentary, which play sports, who probably smokes, and I'd bet good money there are correlations between certain conditions and shopping habits, religious preference, and even political preferences. Just begging to be clustered with the latest hot neural net.
    - banads 7y ago
      >you know which people are sedentary, which play sports, who probably smokes, and I'd bet good money there are correlations between certain conditions and shopping habits, religious preference, and even political preferences. They could already do this with data from Android, Chrome, Google, Maps, or Youtube.
      - saagarjha 7y ago
        But they can do it better with more accurate data, which they can get from this.
      - justinclift 7y ago
        > They could already do this with data from Android, Chrome, Google, Maps, or Youtube. Not everyone uses Google websites.
    - joshuamorton 7y ago
      > No way in hell Google isn't going to use this for advertisement. There are ample ones: It's illegal, it's highly unethical, and you wouldn't be able to keep something like that a secret. > Even if the intentions are benign now, there's no reason to trust they'll be so later, based on Google's track record and the typical tech mindset. What track record?
      - austhrow743 7y ago
        >What track record? Tech company. Automation. Advertising. Do they need to be skinning puppies or something?
        joshuamorton 7y ago
        Right so how does "Tech company. Automation. Advertising." become "Google has a track record of collecting data totally unrelated to its core business and using it to inform advertising." If there's a track record of this, you can give other examples of how Google has done that, right? Where they've gone out and collected data under the guise of doing something benign and then used it for advertisements.
- judge2020 7y ago
  Google is really trying to diversify revenue since they know global web-based advertising regulation is coming (see YT Premium, YT TV, Google Store products, Fi), I can see this being purely a way to enter the healthcare software business.
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deadmutex 7y ago

From the article: "The company says its intentions in health are unconnected with its advertising business".

obmelvin 7y ago
Exactly. There is so much money to be made from healthcare service, it is a market & revenue stream totally separate from advertising, and it can provide great value to many people. There are things one could be critical of regarding their acquisition of data, etc. but I don't think it is in Google's best interest to use the data for advertising.
- allovernow 7y ago
  Why would you trust a literal corporate mouthpiece? You think Zuckerberg cares about your privacy too? No way in hell Google isn't going to use this for advertisement. It's exactly the kind of huge free money that drives everyone else to collect data totally unrelated to their core business. Even if the intentions are benign now, there's no reason to trust they'll be so later, based on Google's track record and the typical tech mindset. Just imagine the kind of profiles you could build on people with medical data. Beyond targeted drug advertisement, medical devices, and the like, you know which people are sedentary, which play sports, who probably smokes, and I'd bet good money there are correlations between certain conditions and shopping habits, religious preference, and even political preferences. Just begging to be clustered with the latest hot neural net.
  - banads 7y ago
    >you know which people are sedentary, which play sports, who probably smokes, and I'd bet good money there are correlations between certain conditions and shopping habits, religious preference, and even political preferences. They could already do this with data from Android, Chrome, Google, Maps, or Youtube.
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      But they can do it better with more accurate data, which they can get from this.
    - justinclift 7y ago
      > They could already do this with data from Android, Chrome, Google, Maps, or Youtube. Not everyone uses Google websites.
  - joshuamorton 7y ago
    > No way in hell Google isn't going to use this for advertisement. There are ample ones: It's illegal, it's highly unethical, and you wouldn't be able to keep something like that a secret. > Even if the intentions are benign now, there's no reason to trust they'll be so later, based on Google's track record and the typical tech mindset. What track record?
    - austhrow743 7y ago
      >What track record? Tech company. Automation. Advertising. Do they need to be skinning puppies or something?
      - joshuamorton 7y ago
        Right so how does "Tech company. Automation. Advertising." become "Google has a track record of collecting data totally unrelated to its core business and using it to inform advertising." If there's a track record of this, you can give other examples of how Google has done that, right? Where they've gone out and collected data under the guise of doing something benign and then used it for advertisements.
judge2020 7y ago
Google is really trying to diversify revenue since they know global web-based advertising regulation is coming (see YT Premium, YT TV, Google Store products, Fi), I can see this being purely a way to enter the healthcare software business.

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