this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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Privacy
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If done well, training AI on this kind of data could be a good thing. It could make say your smartphone (for example) tell you that you have a problem, be used as a first diagnostic and so on. Invaluable in countries where doctors are scarce for example.
If I understand correctly the patients consent is never asked before their data is collected, I could easily see this data being sold to advertising companies. Imagine having a heart attack and when you get home all you see is ads for life insurance.
Giving each person in a hospital a $300 stethoscope + $200 phone + $120 for the subscription + a whole new IT team is simply too expensive when hospitals already struggle to afford basic supplies like vaccines.
This would be a major HIPAA violation if implemented in the US - patient heart sounds are defintely protected health information and using it for AI training without explicit consent is a legal nightmare waiting to happen.
Well privacy laws haven't stopped companies so far.
Also this is the only company that makes stethoscopes so if you don't allow them to collect your data its just "too bad so sad".