Google defeats Britain’s privacy lawsuit over medical data deal
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Google and its subsidiary, DeepMind Technologies were sued by a hospital patient in 2022 for alleged misuse of private data.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON - Google on Dec 11 defeated an attempt in a London court to revive a lawsuit brought by a hospital patient on behalf of 1.6 million people over medical records provided to the US tech giant by a British hospital trust.
The Royal Free London National Health Service (NHS) Trust transferred patient data to Google’s artificial intelligence firm DeepMind Technologies in 2015 to help develop a mobile app to detect kidney injuries.
Britain’s data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, said in 2017 that the Royal Free, which is part of the public NHS, misused patient data when it provided the information to DeepMind.
Google and DeepMind were sued in 2022 by Royal Free patient Andrew Prismall on behalf of 1.6 million people for alleged misuse of private information.
London’s High Court threw out the lawsuit in 2023 on the grounds that there was no prospect of establishing that all 1.6 million claimants’ private information was misused or that they had any expectation of privacy in relation to the information.
Mr Prismall sought to appeal that decision, but the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal on Dec 11.
Mr Prismall’s lawyers declined to comment.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS
