Samsung Health users must consent to AI training or lose sync
New application update disables Samsung Health data sync unless account holders allow personal metrics for machine modelling
Samsung Health users are facing an unexpected choice: consent to sharing their health data for AI training, or lose access to data syncing altogether. The new in-app notice, first reported by How-To Geek, prompts some users with a toggle titled "Consent to the Use of Health Data for AI Training and Modelling." Declining the request comes at a cost. Simply switching off the toggle is not enough to merely opt out of the AI learning programme. Doing so also disables syncing of health data to a user's Samsung account, and the data itself will be wiped unless local laws require Samsung to retain it.
What data Samsung wants for AI training
A Samsung Health support page outlines in detail the types of data covered by the new consent request. These include body measurements, nutrition, step counts, and sleep data, as well as information on medications and prescriptions, medical history involving diagnoses and test results, and cycle-tracking data alongside physiological measures for menstrual health. The company states that the collected data would be used for AI training and modelling, involving human review, to improve health condition analysis and other AI functions within the app.
Consent request broader than typical AI opt-ins
Most AI consent requests apply only to the AI features themselves, but this one is broader. Even users who never engage with Samsung's generative AI tools are being asked to trade sensitive medical data in exchange for the ability to keep syncing their own health history across devices. There is also no confirmation yet on whether the collected data is anonymised before being used for training, a detail that matters given how identifiable health records can be even without a name attached.
