Statement on Amazon Scooping Up Americans’ Health Data Through Purchase of One Medical
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 21, 2022
CONTACT: Ashley Woolheater, Open Markets Institute, woolheater@openmarketsinstitute.org
“U.S. enforcement agencies should block this deal. They should also move swiftly to establish a basic set of rules to protect every corner of America’s health industry from the power of the manipulation platforms.”
WASHINGTON, DC - Amazon today announced plans to buy 1Life Healthcare Inc, which provides health care services in 12 U.S. cities, under the name One Medical. Amazon agreed to pay $3.9 billion for the business. In response, Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn released the following statement:
“Amazon’s takeover of One Medical is the latest shot in a terrifying new stage in the business model of the world’s largest corporations. The deal will expand Amazon’s ability to collect the most intimate and personal of information about individuals, in order to track, target, manipulate, and exploit people in ever more intrusive ways.”
Amazon is not the only dangerous actor here. Google’s recent takeover of the fitness tracker Fitbit poses similar threats.
Every American should stand against this radical extension of corporate power into our lives. In addition to manipulating how we talk to one another and do business with one another, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple are moving fast to manipulate our perceptions of our own health and wellbeing.
Every medical professional and medical business in the United States should also play close attention to this deal. Every time Amazon and Google expand their control over the delivery of healthcare to Americans, they also expand their power over doctors, nurses, and rival practitioners.
U.S. enforcement agencies should block this deal. They should also move swiftly to establish a basic set of rules to protect every corner of America’s health industry from the power of the manipulation platforms.”
Open Markets has warned repeatedly about Amazon‘s massive - and still growing - ability to surveil its customers and influence our decision-making, including with its purchase of Whole Foods several years ago.
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The Open Markets Institute is a team of journalists, researchers, lawyers, economists, and advocates working together to expose and reverse the stranglehold that corporate monopolies have on our country.