Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A recent warning dialog in Samsung Health made it seem like opting out of AI training would disrupt the user experience, deleting “health data” and disabling the syncing of new data.
- Samsung has clarified that opting out specifically deletes health data retained for AI training, which is stored separately from other health data.
- Opting out of allowing your data to be used for AI training doesn’t actually seem to affect Samsung Health functionality, based on testing.
A troubling new pop-up in Samsung Health started making the rounds yesterday. Users interacting with a toggle to opt out of their health data being used to train AI were greeted with a warning telling them that if they chose not to share their health data for AI training, previously uploaded health data would be deleted, and syncing new health data would no longer be possible. Now, though, it seems that that warning was poorly worded.
SamMobile has shared a clarification from Samsung that explains the warning telling users their “health data will be deleted” is referring specifically to “data that has been separately collected and used for AI development purposes,” not the health data that’s “stored for the use of Samsung Health services.” That being the case, the warning users have been seeing does seem awfully misleading.
The obvious interpretation of Samsung’s warning has understandably been causing a bit of an uproar, as the existing phrasing makes it sound like opting out of AI training would make Samsung Health unusable. As the company has clarified, though, that’s not the case.
A Samsung Health page calls out the types of health data Samsung may use for AI training and modeling:
- Health and wellness data: data related to body measurements, nutrition, step count and activity, and sleep
- Medication data: data related to medications, including prescriptions and dosages
- Health records: medical and clinical data, such as diagnoses, prognoses, test results, past records and treatments
- Cycle tracking data: data related to menstrual cycles, including physical conditions and physiological indicators (e.g. heart rate)
As we understand it now, revoking consent for Samsung to use your data for AI training purposes will only delete data retained specifically for that reason. The health data stored on the platform for any other reason should remain intact.
Per SamMobile‘s testing, revoking AI training consent in Samsung Health won’t delete the data that populates the user-facing side of the platform, and syncing data still works, despite Samsung’s poorly phrased warning. The company says it’s working on “improving the notice text” to be clearer.
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