Samsung Health consent prompt rolls out: refusing may cost you sync

Samsung Health, the health app tied to Galaxy devices, appears to be showing users a new consent notice. Reports out of the US and Europe say the notice could force people to agree to health-data training and modeling if they want to keep core account features. Those same reports say that if a user refuses, Samsung account syncing may stop, and records that were already synced could even be wiped.

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The reported policy covers a long list of sensitive data: body measurements, nutrition, step counts, workouts, sleep, medication, diagnoses, test results, treatment history, and menstrual tracking. For a lot of people, that’s months or years of information pulled from Galaxy phones , Galaxy watches, and connected services. Samsung says the change would help improve Samsung Health, predictive health algorithms, and other smart features. The reports also say some of that data may be reviewed by human staff.

If you rely on Samsung Health to store personal records, keep an eye on this. Critics argue that consent isn’t really voluntary if saying no means losing syncing, features, or access to your history. In Europe, some observers also see a possible GDPR problem, since withdrawing consent isn’t supposed to come with a penalty .

Samsung Health runs across Galaxy phones, Galaxy watches, and connected services, and that’s where the reported prompt seems to be appearing. According to the reports, Samsung hadn’t given a detailed public response. It’s also still not clear whether this change is rolling out globally or only in certain markets ahead of Samsung’s July 22 Unpacked event and the expected Galaxy Watch 9.