this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
113 points (90.6% liked)

Technology

59207 readers
3474 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Dont fucking use this. Let it lose money so it goes away. Amazon is awful enough and if this shit trend continues, Meta will get into healthcare too using posts, tracking cookies and purchases on the platform too.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

AI doctors are probably going to be a thing whether we want them or not, one way or another in the near future. I don't think it'll be going away. https://health.google/health-research/

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

In my opinion, I think that properly done AI assisted doctors are a good thing. Doctors have to keep track of so much stuff that is constantly changing, just to make a diagnosis. AI guidance can and will help.

Keyword being "properly" which is probably not going to be the case.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

So basically this

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"Well after reading your internet history, I diagnosed you with depression."
-This session was sponcered by Gold Rope patented pre tied nooses.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

And your Amazon-sponsored telehealth video chat session will have ads pasted across it like some awful news channel screenshot.

Seriously tho, every-single webpage you visit tattles to a combo of Amazon, Meta, or Facebook. That means based on your medical history Amazon can just flat out choose not to show you items it deems unhealthy. It will use all of that to build a profile whose sole goal is to lump you into risk categories it will use as a reason to charge more money. Maybe not at first, but once the exercise of figuring out just what kind of data they have on you is complete and how they can leverage it, they will.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

ugh. those are total garbage and break within a minute. Great for AEA though!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Healthcare is already heavily corporatized in the US, this is just another worsening step.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There are a myriad of reasons why this is bad, and feel free to ask for explanation of any. This is just off the top of my head.

  • A single large monopolistic corporation should not have access to your purchasing and medical history
  • A single breach can now mean purchasing history and medical history
  • Huge potential for ads targeted for a person showing up on a device that isn't strictly theirs (like a family computer) that by doing so endangers their well-being.
  • Reselling of "anonymous" medical info (it'll happen) that is super easy to tie back to previously purchased Amazon info.
  • Third-parties who purchase info not having as hardened security as Amazon leaving data out in the open
  • AI/algoithmic price-gouging on items based on medical data
  • Even more god damned lobbying for anti-patient/anti-consumer based changes to health care law with the financial power of Amazon behind it
  • This sets the bar for other Big Tech and what they also have to do to stay competitive
  • Contacting Amazon customer service for errant prescription/care charges

Do you really want Jeff Bezos and an Amazon Board of Directors death panel deciding what care you receive?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So if you can't afford traditional insurance which is 100% a scam then why is this a bad alternative?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

This isn't a good alternative either. From reading the article it looks like this service is meant to screen less serious issues, and if those less serious issues need an in person doctor visit, you'll need insurance.

The deeper problem is that if our personal data is gold, our medical data is diamonds. It may not be tomorrow, or a decade from now, but I guarantee any sort of contact non-medical corporations make with our medical data will result in a darker dystopia.

Targeted ads will be more invasive. Insurance premiums can be increased for "unhealthy" purchases. Medical coverage can be denied based on economic decisions. The list can go on. We would pretty much get a more perverse profit driven medical system if companies like Amazon start wiggling their way into medicine. Also regulations won't keep us safe, you can thank lobbying for that.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (4 children)

USA please get your shit together. That's so dytopian my head hurts. And you are a vision of the future for all other countries. Thank god I'll be dead by then.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've known this was coming for a few years after the CEO of my previous mental health employer told us he wanted to grow the company large enough to compete with Amazon who were going to be entering the primary care and mental healthcare field. He also warned of Walmart following suit.

It was a hard pill to swallow and I hoped he was wrong, but here we are... It's going to be a scary time if monopolies like Amazon and Walmart strangle out real providers and fuck up our healthcare industry even worse. We need these fuckers to have this fail spectacularly to preserve the industry.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

its really tough seeing dystopian satire become the norm.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Right!?..

I have joked for years that we are living in a simulation and in 2016, they cranked up the satire and absurdity levels. Then in 2020, they cranked up the suffering factor, but left satire and absurdity turned up.

It has seriously felt like living in The Onion universe these last few years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Totally! You already have it bad enough.

Sadly, the critical group will always be inferior to the ignorant or clueless. And hence could be ignored for decision-making. It won't fail. Just throw enough moneyz to marketing and people would even buy your bath-water. Luckily Amazon doesn't have that many moneyz. /s

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

America is falling apart, I don't think our countries consider them a "vision of the future".

Maybe 15-20 years ago, now we are just wondering when the collapse will happen

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I meant, we will face the same fate when our decision-makers see how deep they can bend the americans without getting any resistance. And it's soooo deeeep. And i didn't mean the vision-thing like the good old "murican dream". More like a dystopian vision.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay yeah, you make a scary valid point then. I can see it happening in Canada and a few European nations for sure.

Hell, all I have been seeing for the last 40+ years is a slow erosion of rights. The amount of laws and regulations alone has drastically increased since I was a kid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Same here, fellow old fart. It's the culmination of maany tiny steps down. Or up, from a rich perspective. Too bad that both views inherently have to be directly opposed. When you say "amount of laws and regulations" you make it sound very german 😂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yup when other countries politicians see how deep we will take it they want that for themselves.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, in the end, that's the ironic part. The american dream of freedom. You really got it. Sadly noone ever asked if that freedom should be for companies too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

oh they did actually. its called citizens united and ruled that corporations are super citizens with all the benefits of a person but none of the disadvantages.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Jeeez. I stand corrected. And baffled.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

superpacs would not exist without that law. With the law superpacs have been deciding the canidates to choose from since.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Turd-sandwich or. Douchebag.... Sigh

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

whats really scary is that was passed by a better supreme court. Also its been over a decade and we will never be as free as we were before it till its ended. I can't imagine what our current destroyers of democracy court will pass through. I hope internet stuff like this can be seen by future historians so they know folks were aware and against what was happening but pretty much powerless to stop it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

At least you can rest assured on that. Nowadays history is harder to rewrite or "adapt". So there's that. But fuck. It shouldn't even be a thing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Wanna bet politicians will speedrun that shit, so just in time for us to die while suffering the effects! :D

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Giving Amazon your medical history… what could possibly go wrong.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Me on Amazon: I'll buy some of these.

Amazon: according to your medical records we have decided that it is against your own health interest to purchase this product, so we cannot sell you this product, but here are some Amazon approved alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I mean Google and Facebook probably already know what diseases I have/will have long before Im diagnosed

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think I'm going to stick with my local hospital network and pharmacy. I'm doubtful that my health problems can be solved by a company with a very poor reputation on worker safety and wellness.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

"Could you please pee into a soda bottle and hand it to the nearest Amazon delivery driver? They'll know how to handle it, don't worry, we've been training them for years "

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

What could go wrong?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

For those not in the know, Amazon bought One Medical, they didn't create it. I've been using it since before the purchase and it has been much much better than any past medical care I've recieved.

I really hope that Amazon doesn't screw it up.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I can't wait until every company out there knows that if I don't have a certain product I die and jacks up the price for only me! I also can't wait for my family to come over and see ads related to my very private diagnosis they know nothing about! I also can't wait for potential cures to be blocked on my browsing profile because it'll hinder Amazon's profits!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

And they will incorrectly bill you every single time and you'll spend hours with billing for your insurance and one medical to sort it out and it'll take months.