Google is in the middle of another controversy involving its employees and AI tools. The software giant faced an internal backlash and public scrutiny after reports suggested that it had made employee health benefits conditional – they needed to share sensitive medical data with a third-party, AI-powered platform.
Internal documents reviewed by Business Insider indicated that employees in the United States needed to consent to allow the Nayya tool — an external AI platform suggesting personalised benefits packages — to access their medical claims data in order to enroll in health coverage through Alphabet (Google’s parent company). The initial policy language reportedly stated that any staff member who declined to use Nayya would be ineligible for health benefits altogether.
Google’s health policy sparks new controversy
This mandate sparked significant privacy concerns among staff, with employees posting on internal forums to question the coercive nature of the policy. One post on an internal Q&A site reportedly asked, “Why are we providing our medical claims to a third-party AI tool without a way to opt out?”
Another described the requirement as a “very dark pattern” that stripped consent of its meaning.
In response to the controversy, Google swiftly revised the policy language and issued a clarification.
Google makes revisions
A company spokesperson confirmed that the original wording on its HR site did not reflect the intended policy. “Our intent was not reflected in the language on our HR site. We’ve clarified it to make clear that employees can choose to not share data, without any effect on their benefits enrollment,” the spokesperson stated.
Google highlighted that employee participation in the Nayya tool is entirely optional, a system that has undergone internal security and privacy checks. Courtenay Mencini, a company spokesperson, stressed that employees must opt in to use the tool and share their own health information, as Google itself does not have access to it. Nayya, the vendor, is required to comply with HIPAA regulations, which prohibit the sale or disclosure of personally identifiable health information.