So, on another post people were talking about how Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. collect so much data about us that they are able to recommend products we haven’t even searched for yet, and basically predict our next thought.

Do they have a duty to use this data to look for potential health problems and give targeted help? And the assumption is that this process would be just as automated as targeted ads. No person at the company is actually reviewing your individual data.

For some examples:

+From your data you might be an alcoholic, so ads for nearby AA meetings or hotlines start popping up.

+Your data indicates you might be suicidal, so the suicide hotline number is suddenly in your feed and at the top of every google search.

+Your data shows that you might have skin cancer so things like nearby free cancer clinic or dermatologist recommendations start appearing.

What about if they went a step further and did something like give your information over to help resources to make actual contact with you? For example, data shows you’re in a violent relationship. Should they send your info the a domestic violence resource center to reach out to you? What about to police to make contact? What if your data shows you might be an abusive parent? Should they send your data to authorities like CPS for investigation? Or is that going too far?

Some data that could be used to make these determinations - personal images and videos on the cloud, search terms, location data, posts to social media, recent purchases, text conversations, etc.