Dangers of Handing Health Data to Big Tech

The Ethical and Common Sense Dangers of Handing

Health Data to Big Tech

In a world already teetering under the weight of surveillance, censorship, and digital dependency, the latest push for a government–Big Tech partnership to centralize American health data raises ethical red flags too serious to ignore. Though touted as a modernization effort—a promise to streamline care, cut waste, and improve patient outcomes—the reality is far more complicated. It’s a high-stakes gamble that risks turning every American’s most private health details into a product, a weapon, or both.

Why This Should Alarm Everyone

Imagine a system where your mental health history, chronic conditions, prescriptions, genetic markers, and real-time health indicators are not only accessible to your doctor but also stored, sorted, and analyzed by major tech firms—companies whose business model depends on tracking, profiling, and monetizing human behavior. Now imagine that this same data is directly tied into government systems—systems that have, at best, a checkered history of protecting civil liberties and, at worst, a documented track record of overreach and abuse.

That’s not just a privacy concern—it’s a foundational threat to personal autonomy.

While technological advances can and should be used to improve healthcare, we must not confuse capability with ethical responsibility. The centralized control of health data, especially when shared between powerful private corporations and centralized federal agencies, creates a framework ripe for abuse: surveillance, discrimination, social engineering, and yes—depopulation strategies disguised as public health initiatives.

The Risks Are Not Hypothetical

History offers sobering lessons. From COINTELPRO to warrantless wiretapping, from redlining to AI-driven predictive policing, “data” has too often been used not to empower, but to suppress. When digital tools fall into ethically compromised hands, intent matters little. Capability becomes the threat.

With Big Tech's algorithms already determining which voices are heard, which information gets traction, and which users are flagged as problematic, handing over sensitive health data simply adds fuel to a surveillance system already running too hot. Once these corporations know the who, what, how often, how much, and how sick—the potential for manipulation explodes. Health data isn’t just medical. It’s behavioral. It’s psychological. It’s predictive.

A person’s risk profile could influence whether they’re hired, insured, approved for housing, or even deemed a “risk” in national databases. Combine that with predictive algorithms tied into biometric surveillance or AI-driven diagnostics, and you’re not just being monitored—you’re being managed.

Where Is the Consent?

One of the fundamental principles of ethical healthcare is informed consent. Yet when systems are opaque, opt-out options are buried, and digital literacy is uneven, the illusion of choice replaces the reality of autonomy.

True consent means:

• Knowing who sees your data

• Understanding how it will be used

• Having the power to restrict or revoke access

• Ensuring transparency in how that data may be sold, shared, or analyzed

When data is transferred from doctor’s offices into centralized, interoperable networks governed by data-sharing agreements with corporations, this consent becomes diluted—if not completely erased.

And if you think the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects you, think again. HIPAA was never designed to handle cloud-based analytics, third-party data brokers, or AI-driven health predictions. It’s outdated and full of loopholes—especially once your data leaves the hands of medical providers and enters corporate or government databases.

Who Benefits?

The answer is simple: those who profit from information. Big Tech gains immense value from having access to health data. Insurance companies can tighten policies, pharmaceutical giants can fine-tune marketing, and data brokers can sell targeted profiles for everything from supplements to political campaigns.

But what does the average citizen gain? Convenience? Maybe. But convenience is the bait, not the reward. The real prize is behavioral insight, mass control, and endless monetization. You are not the customer—you are the commodity.

Ethical and Practical Common Sense: A Call for Accountability

From the perspective of EAPCS, this isn't about opposing progress or demonizing technology. It’s about applying ethical and practical common sense. Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done—especially when it involves private, sacred aspects of our lives like health, belief, and biology.

A responsible, human-centered health data system would:

• Be decentralized and patient-controlled

• Use open-source, transparent infrastructure

• Forbid data monetization or non-consensual third-party access

• Be legally shielded from government abuse, especially without court oversight

• Empower patients—not institutions—with control over how their data is stored and shared

Such a system isn’t impossible—it’s just not profitable. And that’s exactly why it won’t be built unless we demand it.

The Digital Slippery Slope

When governments partner with corporations to handle massive datasets, history shows us where it often leads:

• First, it’s about efficiency.

• Then it’s about national security.

• Eventually, it’s about control.

From contact tracing apps to immunity passports, we’ve already seen how quickly temporary measures become normalized—and how swiftly they can divide societies, deny services, and penalize dissent. With medical data as the foundation of social scoring or behavioral nudging, the consequences extend far beyond the clinic. You’re no longer just managing your health—you’re defending your freedom.

Living It Out: What Can You Do?

We’re not powerless—yet. But passivity will guarantee our role as products in someone else’s system.

Here’s how to push back with purpose:

• Educate yourself and others about data rights and digital sovereignty.

• Support ethical tech movements and decentralized health systems.

• Contact your legislators and ask who is overseeing these public-private partnerships.

• Call out the narrative that surveillance is safety.

• Use your platform—however big or small—to raise awareness and demand ethical alternatives.

• Partner with organizations like EAPCS to spread real-world, logical, and moral insights about the misuse of power.

Above all, stop accepting the notion that convenience is worth your privacy. It’s not.