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"any health data gathered as part of the feedback program will not be sold or used for Google ads" But not after the feedback program has finished? "The infor

"any health data gathered as part of the feedback program will not be sold or used for Google ads" But not after the feedback program has finished? "The information will be encrypted" So that only Google can read it? "and stored in the cloud" Yes, of course. What can possibly go wrong. Hope this fails in the grandest of fashions long before they go to market.

henearkr 6y ago
If it's encrypted and only you have the key, then it doesn't matter where it's stored. You can even publish it, it would just be random gibberish without the key. They just need to ensure that's the client side that deciphers the data, and that the private key never leaves the browser side neither. I think that can be audited through JS debug tools.
- hedora 6y ago
  It would need to be audited one each time the browser downloaded the JS. Otherwise, the server can trivially decrypt the data by serving malicious JavaScript once the audit is complete. Anyway, this is Google. There’s no way they’re planning to client-side encrypt. Even if they did, they’d eventually realize it wasn’t generating enough indirect ad revenue to be too big to kill. At that point they’d ungracefully shut it down.
- martinflack 6y ago
  > If it's encrypted and only you have the key, then it doesn't matter where it's stored. Until advances in mathematics or computation obsolete the crypto. We might decide that it doesn't matter within each respective patient's lifetime (a debate) but that is getting longer and longer.
- ralph84 6y ago
  Sounds great in theory, but in practice end users suck at key management. Just look at how many Bitcoin wallets are gone forever because the wallet owner lost the private key.
- foepys 6y ago
  I have zero faith in a system that relies on giving keys to the layman without backups. People already lose their phsical keys all the time. Digital keys will get lost a lot more often and you will end up with lost patient records. You will need to provide a backup option, which in turn makes encryption obsolete.
hedora 6y ago
Not used for ads, but surely for prioritizing search results, youtube videos, and probably many other things.
- nathias 6y ago
  those are just ads with extra steps

henearkr 6y ago

If it's encrypted and only you have the key, then it doesn't matter where it's stored. You can even publish it, it would just be random gibberish without the key. They just need to ensure that's the client side that deciphers the data, and that the private key never leaves the browser side neither. I think that can be audited through JS debug tools.

hedora 6y ago
It would need to be audited one each time the browser downloaded the JS. Otherwise, the server can trivially decrypt the data by serving malicious JavaScript once the audit is complete. Anyway, this is Google. There’s no way they’re planning to client-side encrypt. Even if they did, they’d eventually realize it wasn’t generating enough indirect ad revenue to be too big to kill. At that point they’d ungracefully shut it down.
martinflack 6y ago
> If it's encrypted and only you have the key, then it doesn't matter where it's stored. Until advances in mathematics or computation obsolete the crypto. We might decide that it doesn't matter within each respective patient's lifetime (a debate) but that is getting longer and longer.
ralph84 6y ago
Sounds great in theory, but in practice end users suck at key management. Just look at how many Bitcoin wallets are gone forever because the wallet owner lost the private key.
foepys 6y ago
I have zero faith in a system that relies on giving keys to the layman without backups. People already lose their phsical keys all the time. Digital keys will get lost a lot more often and you will end up with lost patient records. You will need to provide a backup option, which in turn makes encryption obsolete.

hedora 6y ago

Not used for ads, but surely for prioritizing search results, youtube videos, and probably many other things.

nathias 6y ago
those are just ads with extra steps