Privacy fears over NHS deal

GOOGLE has struck up deals with four NHS hospitals to share the data of millions of patients.

The hospitals concerned are in London. The contracts are with Google’s artificial intelligence firm DeepMind, which is using technology to improve treatment of certain conditions.

Plans include developing an app to diagnose a potentially fatal kidney condition, and advanced radiotherapy for head and neck cancers.

The most controversial contracts involve the Royal Free and Imperial College Healthcare, where millions of files have been handed over to DeepMind without patients’ knowledge in a move privacy campaigners say is ‘inexcusable’. The deal with Imperial, struck up in 2015, is still being investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office over possible breaches of privacy.

Phil Booth, of medConfidential, said: ‘DeepMind claims their deal with the Royal Free and Imperial is a direct care project ... yet they continuously fail to answer any privacy or transparency questions.

‘Mistakes were made, and the only people who refuse to admit error are Google.’

DeepMind said they ‘strongly contest’ allegations that the deals were ‘inexcusable’.