'Keep in mind that, for all its awesomeness, this is a company that has never hesitated to ruthlessly dominate any market it enters.' Columnist davidlaz explains the possible ramifications of Amazon's latest move.
. But Amazon’s deal with Britain’s state-run NHS appears to be more treatment-oriented, and raises the possibility of similar U.S. tie-ups with Medicare, private insurers or hospital chains.
“HIPAA doesn’t apply to Amazon in this situation,” she said. “Amazon has no relationship with Alexa users as a healthcare provider. The company theoretically could do almost anything with that information.”An Amazon spokeswoman in Britain, requesting that her name be withheld, said of the NHS deal that “all information is treated with high confidentiality.”
Amazon last year purchased a San Francisco-based online pharmacy called PillPack. Since then, PillPack’s mail-order facilities nationwide have obtained licenses to sell in most states.that Amazon aims to gain experience with online drug sales by first meeting the healthcare needs of the company’s hundreds of thousands of employees. Then it will start filling prescriptions for its millions of U.S. customers.
I asked the Amazon spokeswoman if the company intends to use information gleaned from user questions in Britain for possible online drug sales.Kerry Hall, an Amazon spokeswoman based at the company’s Seattle headquarters, said of the NHS arrangement that “we’re always looking for ways to add more information to Alexa’s knowledge graph, and this is just another example of that.”
“I could see Amazon using the information to target advertising that would steer customers to its own new pharmacy venture,” said Platt at the University of Michigan. “Amazon could also share the information it gets from Alexa Health for targeted advertising by third parties in the same way it currently uses personal information.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Why Is Everyone So Scared of Disney? (Column)Like more or less everyone I know, I have no desire to see a single entertainment company take over the future, dominating what had been a movie industry of multiple entities, each one fighting for…
Read more »
18 Can't-Miss Beauty Deals to Shop For Amazon Prime DayPlease tell us you bought these already
Read more »
Amazon Wants to Make a 'War Cloud' For the Pentagon and Everything Is Fine'Alexa, search for bunkers with one-day shipping, please.' oureric writes:
Read more »
why some people are searching for a lip balm that makes lips look chappedHere’s the first instalment of i-D’s new column, The Beauty Algorithm.
Read more »
Alexa von Tobel On How To Manage Your Money In The Digital AgeFrom investing in tomorrow’s most innovative companies to imparting wisdom on money rules in the digital age in her latest book, von Tobel continues identify the opportunities enabled by today’s surge of disruption.
Read more »
‘Big Little Lies’ Gives Us What We Want. That Isn’t a Good Thing (Column)If it’s even possible to feel sorry for the most celebrated actress of our time, then the second season of “Big Little Lies” has made me feel a bit bad for Meryl Streep. In the season’s early episo…
Read more »