Back in late February, we got a sneak peek at Google Health and of course, one of the top concerns with this new program is privacy issues.

Knowing this would be a hot button issue, Google addressed the privacy issue in the first bullet point, “Google Health will protect the privacy of your health information by giving you complete control over your data. We won’t sell or share your data without your explicit permission. Our privacy policy and practices have been developed in thoughtful collaboration with experts from the Google Health Advisory Council.”

The idea behind Google Health is to have a secure online storage facility for private medical records. A family can store its records of illnesses, prescriptions, vaccinations, procedures, and blood tests in one easily accessible place. Health records can also be imported from a few participating health providers as well.

One of the benefits of this kind of storage is that a patient can decide ahead of time to let a doctor or hospital (or anyone else) see this information in times of emergency. Some have called the storage of medical records online, though, the “wild, wild West” when it comes to privacy concerns. This unchartered territory is tempered with third party privacy audits starting in June that will help quiet some of these fears.

It remains to be seen whether or not Google Health will add to Google wealth by advertising medical supplies, pharmaceuticals or other revenue sources in the future.

Filed under: Google