Is Google Inc really going to become the evil empire of the web? The motto "Do No Evil", which they employ will hopefully go with them as they seem to take over every facet of American lifestyles. From search engines, to word documents, to phones, to this very blog site, Google Inc has it's hand in virtually everything.
Now, Google Inc plans to unveil in the near future a system that will begin storing medical records. It will start small at the Cleveland Medical Center to work out the kinks in the system and the go larger and larger scale. "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." Google is touting this new system a completely logical expansion of their ever popular search engine.
This sounds like a perfectly legitimate enterprise that Google is undertaking expanding upon their original idea of making search engines better and transferring it to making accessing patient records easier and better. However, I have doubts about the safety and security of the system as I am sure many others do. What will occur if the system is hacked into however and the patient confidentiality agreement is now broken and patient information is now available to all. This is not like when a hacker breaks the ITUNES code and makes songs available to steal for a small period until it is fixed. This instead is private information that once is out there it cannot be taken back. Thus, the ramifications for this brings up an interesting take on the the legal responsibilities Google has in their terms and services with regard to this use.
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