Last week, Google announced that it would be buying Fitbit, valuing the 12-year-old company at $2.1 billion. Many have seen this as an attempt to boost Google’s position in the wearables sector. So far, the company’s Wear OS platform has made relatively little impact. The acquisition certainly improves Google’s position, but it is only part of a much larger strategy to scoop up the huge amounts of data that are now being generated in the health sector.
Back in 2017, the UK’s Information Commissioner ruled on a collaboration between Google’s DeepMind AI division and a UK National Health Service (NHS) hospital. The Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust provided personal data of around 1.6 million patients as part of a trial to test an alert, diagnosis and detection system for acute kidney injury.
— source privateinternetaccess.com | Nov 7, 2019
