Amazon NHS Association

Amazon NHS Association

An association for elderly people, blind people and other patients who cannot easily search for health advice on the internet to access the information through the AI-powered voice assistant Alexa.

Recently, Matt Hancock announced a new collaboration between the NHS and Amazon, which paired expert medical advice by NHS with amazon’s market-leading Alexa device. People who need medical information can get advice directly from NHS which is more accurate, reliable and safe.

Privacy campaigners have expressed their concern for the data, they said that the data could be stored and used to sell targeted ads aimed at customers.

Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Amazon’s Alexa records what people say, stores recordings in data centres we know nothing about and exploits our data for profit. This scheme will likely result in people being profiled and targeted by data brokers based on their deeply personal health concerns”.

Amazon defended this by giving the statement: “Customer trust is of the utmost importance and Amazon takes privacy seriously. Customers are in control of their voice history. They can review and delete voice recordings in the Alexa App or by visiting amazon.co.uk/privacy. They can also opt-in to ‘delete what I just said’ or ‘delete what I said today’.”

Amazon said it will not build a health profile of customers and all information is treated with the highest confidentiality. It’s algorithm will use information from the NHS website to provide answers to questions such as: “Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?”; “Alexa, what are the symptoms of flu?”, and “Alexa, what are the symptoms of chickenpox?”

The Department of Health (DoH) said it would empower patients and hopefully reduce the pressure on the NHS by providing reliable information on common illnesses.

Voice search has been increasing rapidly and by 2020 half of all searches are expected to be made via voice-assisted technology.

Under the NHS long-term plan, which aims to improve the quality of patient care and health outcomes in an effort to relieve pressure on the health service, it has committed to making more services available digitally.

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