Man, I’m a vet, work in tech, and the reactions here are why I hate the tradeoffs I make by being in the industry.
The amount of “what’s the big deal!” or just total blindness to the issue at hand is not surprising but severely disappointing in what it confirms.
These aren’t just random medical records, they belong to service members and extends the theme of the DoD owns you in service and the VA “helps” you after service to… and Google too! It’s just another example of how Soldiers are treated like disposable units and now apparently that extends into my civilian life.
The civilian/military divide lives and breathes in the so-what attitudes in this thread.
Because you served to help your country and then call it a day, not have your medical legacy live on in a Google product after you’ve left. Just another thumb in the eye for vets from a public that doesn’t care beyond a NFL game. That’s where the simple exercise could lead.
On one hand, the DoD playing chess with plug and play resources that Soldiers are. Tech employees being willfully blind to the ethics of this. No surprise either way, China got my data via OPM anyway.
On the other: sick! That’s great Google has the medical records detailing people’s worst moments from war (TBI, PTSD. amputations) or others (spousal abuse, drug abuse), all for a good product! A maxim vets are pretty good at following is your DoD past stays with you and the VA, but that’s great Google gets to poke under the covers too. Hope the product is useful for an OKR. This doesn’t stop with pathology slides from days of yore and we all know it.