But its particularly relevant at a time when Google is moving quickly into health care and stealthily gathering medical data from millions of patients.
It says that although Google and the NIH worked together to remove all identifying information from the X-rays, Google was rushing to meet a self-imposed deadline and did not give these privacy issues proper attention.
Google has undertaken numerous research tasks like this, using similar datasets to predict heart disease risk by examining eye scans and detect breast cancer from biopsies.
According to the Post, this information included the dates the X-rays were taken and distinctive jewelry that patients were wearing when the X-rays were taken.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal revealed details on Googles Project Nightingale, in which it collected medical data from millions of patients in 21 US states as part of a deal to improve the record-keeping system of the Ascension medical group.
The news triggered a government inquiry, with the Department of Health and Human Services announcing that it will seek to learn more information about this mass collection of individuals medical records to ensure Google has not broken federal law.
Original article