Verily told 5 US senators that it has run more than 7,000 tests for COVID-19 and plans to keep the mandatory Google sign-in – here's the letter it sent
Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet, during a session of the 50th World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2020.Google's Verily division has been screening and testing participants for COVID-19, but lawmakers are concerned over how it is collecting and using people's data.
Verily has now addressed those questions in a letter sent to the same senators and obtained by Business Insider. In it, Verily assured the senators that any data collected wouldn't be used for commercial purposes or sold to third parties."Verily has focused on the protection of the security and privacy of personal health information since the inception of its Baseline COVID-19 Program," the company wrote.
"Verily uses Google Account as a secure way to authenticate individuals for use of the Baseline COVID-19 Program," it wrote.
But it also added that it may contact individuals in the future to "ask if they would like to share data collected through Verily's COVID-19 Baseline Program for research purposes." If so, Verily says authorization for further holding onto that user's data would happen via a separate opt-in process. At the federal level, it said it is working with the US Department of Health and Human Services and with FEMA. Verily said it has "had communications" with the White House to update it with the status of its program.
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