Google has access to detailed health records on tens of millions of Americans

Google quietly partnered last year with Ascension—the country’s second-largest health system—and has since gained access to detailed medical records on tens of millions of Americans, according to a November 11 report by The Wall Street Journal. The endeavor, code-named “Project Nightingale,” has enabled at least 150 Google employees to see patient health information, which includes diagnoses, laboratory test results, hospitalization records, and other data, according to internal documents and the newspaper’s sources. In all, the data amounts to complete medical records, WSJ notes, and contains patient names and birth dates. The…

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Less Salty Diets Would Save Millions of Lives: Study

Reducing salt intake worldwide by only ten percent could save millions of lives, a study reported Wednesday. Government-led public service campaigns could massively cut mortality and disability caused by salt-triggered heart attacks and strokes for just over 10 US cents a year per person, researchers calculated. Even without including healthcare savings, “we found that a government supported, national policy to reduce population sodium intake by 10 percent over 10 years would be cost effective,” the authors concluded in the medical journal BMJ. Most adults exceed the recommended maximum salt levels…

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Google Acknowledges Vulnerability in Millions of Android Devices; Promises Fix

Millions of Android smartphones and tablets are vulnerable to security attacks, Google has warned. The vulnerability, if exploited, gives an app unfettered root access, circumventing various Android security layers. The Mountain View-based company has made available a patch to OEMs, and says it is currently working on a fix for the Nexus lineup. Security researchers spotted an app in the Google Play, Android’s marquee app store, which tries to leverage the vulnerability. Android inherited the flaw from Linux years ago. Interestingly, Linux developers fixed the bug in 2014, and it…

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New Stagefright Vulnerability Found, Millions of Android Devices Affected: Report

New Stagefright Vulnerability Found, Millions of Android Devices Affected: Report Security researchers have once again discovered a flaw in Android’s Stagefright mediaserver component. In a demonstration, the researchers were able to remotely hack a phone with Stagefright-based exploit. Their finding underscores a vulnerability in millions of Android devices that could be triggered when they are made to visit a specially-crafted webpage. Israel-based research firm Northbit published a research paper this week in which it claims to have found a “proper” exploit dubbed Metaphor, using a new vulnerability in the Stagefright.…

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