Samsung is holding your health data hostage to train its AI

Samsung is forcing users to consent to AI training in the Samsung Health app or face losing access to their health data.

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The controversial new toggle, now appearing in the app, requires users to allow their health information to be used for AI modeling or risk having it deleted. The notice, titled "Consent to the Use of Health Data for AI Training and Modeling," appears upon opening the app. Disabling it prevents users from syncing health data to their Samsung accounts, and the data is removed unless required by law. How-To Geek reported the first sightings of the toggle, which has since spread to more users.

This move raises serious privacy concerns, especially since the data in question may include highly sensitive information, such as medical records, medications, and menstrual cycle data. The broader AI industry is increasingly reliant on personal data, but requiring users to give up privacy or lose core functionality is a troubling trend. Samsung's decision may signal a shift in how health data is treated in the AI era.

"The health data you have allowed us to collect and process will be used for AI training and modeling, including human review, to improve Samsung Health, including algorithms to analyze health conditions and our AI features," reads the Samsung Health page

With no clear opt-out path, users are left with a stark choice: give up their privacy for AI training or lose access to the data they've tracked. If this becomes standard practice, expect more scrutiny and pushback from privacy advocates and general users who don't wish to contribute to the seemingly endless hunger of AI companies wanting to feed their expansive models, which are then sold right back to the same consumers that are being harvested.

Frequently Asked Questions

Open a question for an answer from TweakTown's coverage of this news, or ask your own below.

Question #1

Will disabling the AI training toggle permanently delete my existing Samsung Health data or is there a grace period?

Disabling the AI training toggle prevents syncing and results in your Samsung Health data being removed unless retention is required by law. The article does not describe any grace period before deletion.

Question #2

Does the AI training consent apply to all data types (medical records, medications, menstrual cycle) or only certain categories?

The consent applies to the health data Samsung collects and processes, which the article says may include highly sensitive information such as medical records, medications, and menstrual cycle data. The Samsung Health notice says the health data you allowed them to collect will be used for AI training and modeling, including human review.

Question #3

Is the AI training toggle applied per device or per Samsung account across multiple devices?

The article indicates the toggle affects syncing to your Samsung account rather than being device-specific: disabling it prevents health data from syncing to your Samsung account and the data is removed unless required by law. Thus the change is tied to the Samsung account across devices, not per device.

Question #4

Can Samsung Health syncing be limited to local device storage to avoid sending data to Samsung for AI training?

No. According to the article, turning off the new consent toggle prevents Samsung Health from syncing data to your Samsung account, but it also causes the app to remove that data unless required by law, effectively revoking access rather than allowing purely local-only storage. Users who refuse consent therefore cannot simply keep their data only on-device to avoid it being used for AI training.

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The main problem with this feature is: what do Samsung Health users who don't use any generative AI features do, but just want access to the standard Samsung Health? By not opting into data tracking, those users have now had their access revoked.