"Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that's likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.
The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's new service, which won't be open to the general public.
Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that's also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools."
Woahh, that's a little scary to me - with only a password between my health records and the public world wide web, I would be a little hesitant in giving my health records out to Google. I can definitely see the benefits of having such records in a place that's easily accessible, but is easy accessibility what I want? I don't think so, not yet at least. What worries me is that 1) these records are not by the HIPPA bill, 2) this program is still in its early stage with no one really knowing what problems will arise or what implication this will have, and 3) the security is questionable. I'm also worried by if and how Google would use this program to earn revenue - if they are expecting to sell advertising like they do with their main search page, they I'll know that the are keeping a watch on me. So I would not put my health records into a Google database - to me it is just to risky. For the rest of my generation though, those chronicle-my-daily-life-and-possibly-illegitimate-activities-with-posts-and-pictures on Faceook type people, they might think differently. Maybe I will too in the feature, but not now, not at this time, with this technology.
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