London’s Royal Free hospital failed to comply with the Data Protection Act when it handed over personal data of 1.6 million patients to DeepMind, a Google subsidiary, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO’s ruling was largely based on the fact that the app continued to undergo testing after patient data was transferred. Patients, it said, were not adequately informed that their data would be used as part of the test. For example, we are now doing much more to keep our patients informed about how their data is used. In a blogpost, the company said: “We welcome the ICO’s thoughtful resolution of this case, which we hope will guarantee the ongoing safe and legal handling of patient data for Streams.

Source: The Guardian July 03, 2017 13:52 UTC