Samsung: Hand over tour health data to train AI, or we’ll delete it all
AI-drunk companies love to trumpet their millions or billions of users. What they don’t tell you is that most are forced to use such features. Think of the AI overviews that Google Search forces on you, whether you asked for it or not.
Samsung seems to have taken this tactic to the next level. According to How-To Geek, the Samsung Health app will delete users’ health data from the company’s cloud — making sync between devices impossible — unless they agree to hand it over for AI training and modeling.
The new consent toggle comes enabled by default and is buried in the app settings. It shows this message when someone tries to turn it off:
Withdraw from this agreement?
You will not be able to sync health data with your Samsung account and your health data will be deleted unless retained pursuant to applicable law. If retention is required, we will erase it as soon as the required retention period ends.
Samsung collects four types of data in Health:
- Health and wellness: biometric, nutritional, body composition, and sleep data.
- Medications: including prescriptions and dosages.
- Clinical exams and treatments.
- Menstrual cycle.
A message on Samsung’s website warns that people may have access to this data to review it.
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Samsung’s biggest rival, Apple, is also preparing to make Apple Intelligence — its suite of generative AI tools embedded in its operating systems — mandatory starting from version 27.