Android 14: a worrying centralization of our health data?
Health Connect changes gear
If you are a user of sports and fitness applications on Android, you may have already noticed the difficulty of synchronizing your information in an easy and readable way. In question, a lack of standardization of data as well as too little automation of statistics. To simplify the process, Google launched Health Connect, a tool that facilitates the sharing of data between all your fitness applications. Currently in beta, the tool is struggling to convince, with less than a million downloads so far.
Platform and #applicationprogramminginterface (API) ‘Health Connect’ system which was co-developed by #Google and #Samsung will reportedly integrate into #Android14 system software.https://t.co/EgbIO1CLx3
— Telangana Today (@TelanganaToday) December 21, 2022
In order to promote the use of this application, particularly by developers, Google seems to be moving towards native integration within Android 14. As proof, curious people have found a Health Connect package within the latest update. Android 13 QPR2. It therefore seems that the Californian firm is preparing to make this application a system component.
Beware of centralization!
If this solution will simplify the management of health and fitness data, it is still one more step towards a complete centralization of your data at Google. Indeed, it is intended to be a hub filtering and distributing all the information collected by linked third-party applications. According to the firm, the tool is encrypted, secure and works only locally. The data does not leave the device and is not stored in external servers.
The fact remains that this information is that given by Google. If we must not fall into Orwellian paranoia, let’s not forget that Google is frequently singled out for opacity in its private data policies. For example, Internet users have discovered that the giant’s algorithms monitor the content of your Drive.
