Michael Hiltzik: Amazon’s acquisition of a medical firm may not disrupt healthcare, but could disrupt your life
In announcing its newest foray into the healthcare field last month — the $3.9-billion acquisition of the primary care firm One Medical — Amazon explained its interest in the industry this way:
"We think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention."
There are two ways to think about that statement. For one thing, it's indisputable. For another, when you hear Amazon talking about reinventing how you get medical treatment, you should be afraid. Very afraid.
That's because of what we know about Amazon's corporate expertise. The giant company doesn't know much about delivering healthcare — that's obvious from the checkered record of its previous healthcare ventures.
What Amazon does know about is how to snarf up personal data from its customers and exploit it for profit.
Information from buyers of books and other merchandise on its website, including from users of its Kindle ebooks and its Echo home devices (those objects you activate by summoning "Alexa"), all gets used by Amazon to sell users more merchandise, more subscription services, more TV shows and movies.
"Amazon is a data company," says Caitlin Seeley George, managing director of , a tech policy
