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    Opinion: Tech companies’ dangerous practice: using artificial intelligence to mine hidden health data

    Like modern day alchemists turning lead into gold, tech companies use machine learning to transform our digital traces into valuable and unprotected health data.
    by Mason Marks Sep 17, 2019 5 minutes
    Source: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images

    Imagine sending a text message to a friend. As your fingers tap the keypad, words and the occasional emoji appear on the screen. Perhaps you write, “I feel blessed to have such good friends :)” Every character conveys your intended meaning and emotion.

    But other information is hiding among your words, and companies eavesdropping on your conversations are eager to collect it. Every day, they use artificial intelligence to extract hidden meaning from your messages, such as whether you are depressed or diabetic.

    Companies routinely collect the digital traces we leave behind as we go about our daily lives. Whether we’re buying books on Amazon, watching clips on YouTube, or communicating with friends online, evidence of nearly everything we do is compiled by technologies that surround us: record our track our movements, monitors our interests, and scrutinize our faces.

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