Microsoft’s HealthVault personal online repository for health data and electronic medical records has enabled Facebook authentication as an optional method for people to sign in to the system. Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet spotted the news and posted about it this morning.
Connecting Facebook to your online medical records might seem like a watershed moment in this era of oversharing. But don’t worry, says the HealthVault team, Facebook is being used for sign-in, not social networking.
“With this release, we’re acknowledging Facebook’s central role in people’s lives by allowing users to sign into HealthVault using their Facebook credentials,” writes Microsoft’s “Family Health Guy,” Sean Nolan. “It’s important to note that this does NOT mean that HealthVault information will show up on your wall! Today, data only moves from Facebook to HealthVault, not the other way around — we use your name, birthdate, etc. from Facebook to populate the HealthVault signup form, but that’s it.”
Facebook authentication is one of a series of recent updates to the HealthVault system, including mobile access. More details on the HealthVault developer blog.
