Samsung clarifies what happens to your data if you withdraw Samsung Health AI consent

Samsung has clarified how its new Samsung Health AI consent system works after users were left confused by wording that suggested withdrawing consent could delete their health data stored on Samsung's servers and disable Samsung Cloud syncing.

Earlier this week, Samsung Health users began seeing a pop-up asking them to consent to the use of their health data for AI training and modeling.

While the company made it clear that users could withdraw their consent at any time, a pop-up message shown when disabling the option stated that doing so would delete Samsung Health data stored on Samsung's servers and disable syncing with Samsung Cloud.

That wording raised questions about whether users would effectively have to choose between protecting their data from AI training and keeping Samsung Health's cloud sync features.

We reached out to Samsung for clarification after noticing the ambiguity. Samsung has now published an in-app notice explaining that this is not how the feature works.

In short:

According to the company, data collected for AI training and modeling is separate from the health data used to provide Samsung Health services.

If a user withdraws consent, only the data that was separately collected for AI development will be deleted and will no longer be used for those purposes. Existing Samsung Health data stored for the service itself will not be deleted or otherwise affected.

Samsung also appears to be aware the wording wasn't clear. According to the notice, it is ‘currently improving the notice text so that customers can understand the information more clearly and accurately.'

We also tested the feature ourselves after seeing the notice. Despite the earlier pop-up suggesting that Samsung Cloud syncing would be disabled, Samsung Health continued syncing data normally after we withdrew consent. The Samsung Cloud sync toggle remained enabled.

It appears the original consent dialog was simply worded poorly rather than reflecting how the feature actually works. Samsung's clarification should reassure users who were worried that declining AI training would affect their ability to use Samsung Health or sync their health data across devices.