AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Parmy Olson and Denise Roland 

LONDON -- Amazon.com Inc.'s voice assistant Alexa will provide medical information to users in Britain that comes directly from the country's state-backed National Health Service, a deal that broadens the tech giant's push into health care but raised concerns among privacy advocates about exploiting people's medical information.

Under the partnership, which starts this week, Alexa will automatically search the NHS website for information when asked about common illnesses instead of other sites. It is Amazon's first deal with the NHS, which provides health care for more than 66 million people in the U.K. No money will change hands.

For Amazon, serving reliable health information could help build trust with British consumers. It also establishes a relationship with the NHS that could lead to the provision of other services. Other local technology companies have contracts with the NHS to book appointments with doctors and order prescriptions.

Representatives for Amazon and the NHS wouldn't comment on how the tie-up might evolve over time.

Privacy advocates warned the collaboration could make patients more cautious about sharing sensitive personal information with health-care providers or lead to the misuse of such data.

"There's a benefit in it for Amazon, which means the commercialization of our health data," said Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, a privacy campaign group.

"We shouldn't forget that Amazon is not a charity," said Eva Blum-Dumontet, a researcher at Privacy International. She said Amazon had a poor track record for transparency on privacy matters, citing Alexa's default settings that allow employees to listen to requests, without making that clear in its privacy policy. Amazon says it does this to improve the service.

An Amazon spokeswoman said the company wasn't collecting personal information or sharing audio recordings. "Customer trust is of the utmost importance, and Amazon takes privacy seriously," she added. Amazon says it has millions of Alexa users in the U.K.

The U.K. government said offering NHS advice through Alexa had the potential to reduce pressure on doctors and pharmacies. The partnership is part of a broader effort by health officials in the U.K. to give citizens greater access to health care through digital means. It recently launched a smartphone app that allows users to check their symptoms and view their medical records.

"I want the very best advice on Alexa," Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a radio interview with the BBC.

The tie-up, instigated by the U.K. government, has been in the works for at least a year. Mr. Hancock said in a speech in July last year that NHS information on things like back pain would be made available through digital assistants. The NHS is in talks with other digital-assistant makers, a spokesman said.

Alexa users can already ask the voice assistant for information relating to their health, but until now, the answer could come from a variety of websites. Now, it will only return information found on NHS websites.

A spokeswoman for Amazon said the service wouldn't seek to diagnose users, adding "this is an information service." A customer can ask Alexa how to treat a migraine, for instance, but they can't ask if they should call an ambulance.

Amazon has already made moves to encourage consumers to use Alexa for health matters. In the U.S., the company has established partnerships with hospital systems and insurer Cigna Corp. that allow Alexa to transfer sensitive health information using a federally mandated protocol that meets health-privacy rules. Under those arrangements, Alexa can schedule hospital appointments and read blood-sugar results.

Doctor and patient groups in the U.K. said the NHS partnership would help some users access reliable health-care information but stressed the need to monitor whether they were receiving safe advice. "It is vital that independent research is done to ensure that the advice given is safe, otherwise it could prevent people seeking proper medical help," said Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, a medical association for primary-care physicians.

Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 10, 2019 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)

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