Google has reportedly informed employees that they must allow third-party AI medical tools to access their data in order to receive health benefits. If refused, they would not receive health insurance. The move angered some employees.
The company announced this month that U.S. employees who want to sign up for health benefits through its parent company Alphabet during the upcoming enrollment period must authorize use of an artificial intelligence tool provided by Nayya that provides personalized benefits recommendations, according to internal documents reviewed by Business Insider.
If employees refuse to opt-in to Nayya's tools, they won't be eligible for any health benefits, according to guidelines seen by Business Insider. Internal communications show some employees asked leaders why they couldn't receive health benefits if they chose not to give Nayya access to their data.
Nayya's tool allows employees to enter information about their health and lifestyle and provides recommendations for selecting benefits.
"Nayya provides core health plan operational services to optimize your benefit use, so Alphabet health plan participants cannot fully opt out of third-party data sharing (which is permitted by HIPAA)," Google's internal resource page for employees reads.
"Opting out of health provider data sharing in the future, during open enrollment or when you experience a qualifying household status change, will opt you out of benefits provided by Alphabet."
Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said Nayya will only have access to "standard" employee data, such as demographic information, if the employee opts in. From there, employees can choose to use the tool and provide more data, or ignore it, she said.
Mencini told Business Insider: "This voluntary tool passed our internal security and privacy review and was created to help our employees better understand our broad range of health benefit options. Employees must choose to use the tool and share their health information because Google cannot access it."
Google employees posted messages on an internal Q&A site asking why they had to give potentially sensitive medical data to outside tools if they wanted to get health insurance.
"Why should we submit our medical claims to a third-party AI tool with no way to opt out?" one message asked.
"This is a very dark pattern," another post read. "I cannot knowingly consent to my data being shared with this company, nor do I want to consent in this way."
Some employees also posted their concerns on Memegen, Google's internal message board. One post read: "Agreeing for an optional feature like 'Benefit Usage Optimization' makes no sense if it's combined with a must-have feature like Google's Health Plan! The word you have in mind is 'mandatory.'"
A Nayya spokesperson said their tool allows employees who choose to participate to see how much their deductible has been reached and receive personalized plan recommendations. They also said Google conducted standard security and privacy reviews of Nayya's products.
"Nayya is required to protect health data in accordance with HIPAA," reads Google's FAQ page about Nayya, which adds that Nayya "does not share, rent, sell or otherwise disclose" the personally identifiable information it collects.
From Meta to Microsoft, more and more companies are incorporating artificial intelligence tools into their workplaces. Google is also promoting the use of artificial intelligence to improve employee productivity. Like Google, companies like Salesforce and Walmart have rolled out AI health benefits tools like Included Health to their employees.