Samsung deletes health data unless users consent to AI training — SkimNews
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- Samsung Health introduced a new toggle titled "Consent to the Use of Health Data for AI Training and Modelling," which some users are now seeing in the app.
- Disabling the toggle triggers a warning that health data cannot be synced to a Samsung account and will be deleted, unless retention is legally required.
- The health data Samsung captures for AI training spans four categories: wellness metrics (body measurements, nutrition, steps, sleep), medication data, medical records (diagnoses, prognoses, test results, treatments), and menstrual cycle tracking data including heart rate.
- Samsung states the collected data will be used for AI training and modeling — including human review — to improve Samsung Health algorithms and AI features.
- It's unclear whether Samsung is anonymizing the data, and the company has not publicly confirmed the toggle or its data-handling practices as of the report.
- An Android Authority reader poll of 129 respondents found 82% would not consent to Samsung using their health data for AI training, with only 4% saying yes.
- How-To Geek first surfaced screenshots of the toggle and the deletion warning, which Android Authority has corroborated while awaiting Samsung's response.
Why it matters: Samsung is effectively making a core feature — cloud sync of health data — contingent on surrendering highly sensitive medical information, including diagnoses, medications, and menstrual cycle data, for AI training. With 82% of polled Android Authority readers rejecting the trade, the policy risks alienating users who never opted into Samsung's generative AI features in the first place.
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