Google: You can trust us with the medical data you didn’t know we already had

Google now has access to detailed medical records on tens of millions of Americans, but the company promises it won't mix that medical data with any of the other data Google collects on consumers who use its services.

Google provided this statement yesterday shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is partnering with Ascension, the country's second-largest health care system, "on a project to collect and crunch the detailed personal-health information of millions of people across 21 states."

"To be clear: under this arrangement, Ascension's data cannot be used for any other purpose than for providing these services we're offering under the agreement, and patient data cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data," Google said in a blog post. That would mean Google won't use the medical data to target advertisements at users of Google services.