Google taking over health records raises patient privacy fears

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 02, 2015 Members of clinical staff work at computers in the Accident and Emergency department of the 'Royal Albert Edward Infirmary' in Wigan, north west England on April 2, 2015. - Around 63,000 of the 1.2 million people employed by Britain's public health service come from the European Union (5.6 percent), according to data from the National Health Service (NHS). An exodus of EU staff because of Brexit could be catastrophic for Britain's NHS, warned Siva Anandaciva, an analyst at the King's Fund health charity in London. (Photo by OLI SCARFF / AFP)

Three years ago, artificial intelligence company DeepMind embarked on a landmark effort to transform health care in the UK. Now plans by owner Alphabet Inc to wrap the partnership into its Google search engine business are tripping alarm bells about privacy. 

Data protection advocates cried foul when the company reversed course on an earlier pledge to keep DeepMind Health, which taps millions of British medical records to monitor and diagnose disease, separate from Google. This month Alphabet said it plans to consolidate the businesses.