Be careful about Google's next move

I have long been advising my family and friends to try best not to use real names or other personal information online. It is simply too risky nowadays to allow others to manipulate your data for harmful actions, even without you knowing it. Here is one thing coming up from Google. Be careful!

Google's underhanded health care ambitions are becoming clear…

Longtime readers may remember Google's life sciences spinout called Verily. We talked about this company back in March 2020.

Verily just raised $1 billion in a recent funding round. And sure enough, Google was the lead investor.

This seems counterintuitive. Google makes nearly all its money from advertising revenues. Why is it investing so heavily in biotech and health care technology?

Well, the picture is becoming clearer. This $1 billion raise will fuel Google's aspirations for elevated data collection in the health care industry.

In fact, Verily is now hiring ex-public health officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The startup has brought in several top people from the FDA. And no doubt it's paying them very well.

These are former regulators who know their way around the system. And their job is to "grease the wheels" to help Verily gain access to patients' medical records – with or without their consent. They do this by working out deals with hospitals and health care organizations.

Obviously, this should make us all suspicious.

We've seen how Google manipulated search results to push a political narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic. It actively worked to present information around COVID-19 and the mRNA shots that we now know to be either completely false or misleading. And Google suppressed any information suggesting there were risks or side effects to the experimental injections, something that we now know is common.

Now Google is pouring $1 billion into its life sciences spinout to get former FDA employees on its payroll. And their job is to enhance Verily's data collection ability.

Of course, Verily says that it will use this data to improve the clinical trial and drug development process. And that all health care data will be anonymized. But can we trust this company?

I certainly do not.

Like Google, Verily's business is built around collecting and selling access to data. Companies working within the biotech industry are a prime target. Insurers could be as well.

What if Verily could identify pre-existing conditions in patients – perhaps conditions the patients themselves didn't even know about – and sell that data to insurance companies?

Suddenly, those patients would be locked out of affordable insurance coverage. And they may not even know why.

And then if we think about all the economic and personal data Google has on everyone… if it could combine that with our sensitive medical data, then suddenly it has a comprehensive picture. And it may be able to use this picture to influence consumers' health care decisions.

So I think this is something we need to be very wary of. Should we trust Google or other Big Tech companies with our health records?

To me, the answer is clear.

Jeff Brown