Will your Samsung Health data be deleted if you don't consent to its use for AI training?

Samsung recently began notifying Samsung Health users about using their health data for AI training and modeling. It appears that users who do not consent to the use of their personal health data for AI training will have their data deleted from Samsung's servers, and data syncing with Samsung Cloud will also be disabled.

On Android devices running the latest version of Samsung Health (7.00.5.009), a pop-up began appearing this week when users opened the app. It asks users to consent to the use of their Samsung Health data. If they agree, their existing and future Samsung Health data stored on Samsung's servers will be used for AI training and modeling. And this includes “human review” of data when required. If users decline, their data will not be used for AI training.

However, if a user taps “Agree” and later tries to disable the AI training-related toggle in the Samsung Health app's Settings menu, a pop-up appears explaining that withdrawing consent will result in the deletion of their Samsung Health data from Samsung's servers.

Additionally, users will no longer be able to sync their Samsung Health data with Samsung Cloud. This is confusing because it does not clearly state whether only data collected after consent will be deleted or whether all of the user's Samsung Health data stored on the company's servers will be removed.

We have reached out to Samsung for clarification. If Samsung does not allow users to sync Samsung Health data between their devices through Samsung Cloud unless they consent to the use of that data for AI training, it could erode users' trust in the company’s commitment to protecting personal data. Few types of information are more personal than health-tracking data.

We will update this article with Samsung's official response as soon as we receive clarification from the company.