In a major victory for privacy professionals, technology companies, and those intending to use healthcare data to feed artificial intelligence algorithms, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently rejected a putative class action regarding the collection and exchange of anonymized healthcare data.
The lawsuit, filed against Google and the University of Chicago Medical Center, sought damages for the collection and use of the plaintiff’s healthcare data, alleging, among other things, that the university breached contractual obligations within its privacy notice and that Google impermissibly was capable of reidentifying patients because of its vast data network. The case has wide-reaching implications for the use of anonymized healthcare data for research and other applications.