[samsamoa]

True, but there are some kinds of data that people are still uncomfortable sending to Google. Medical data is considered especially private, and aggregation of medical data is a huge obstacle to improving treatment using ML. I think this could be really huge in that space.

[dekhn]

There is a movement to change consent forms (which patients sign as they enter a medical system) to permit larger sharing of medical data outside of its direct use. IE, you are offered an opt-in to permit your data to be analyzed beyond an individual visit, possibly for medical issues completely unrelated to any immediate medical problem. The consent forms are transparent, and opt-in- the health consumer is informed what their data will be used for, and they explicitly have to say it's OK (blanket consent, can be revoked).

I think this is a win, because the consumer has the choice, and if enough people do it ,the resulting aggregated datasets will have exceptional power to help solve global medical problems.