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‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

med.stanford.edu

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Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#71
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who built a house not so long ago I can tell you that the official German words are "Tiefspüler" (the modern type) vs "Flachspüler" (the old type). The old type is recommended for elderly people who want to inspect their stool regularly for blood, maggots and jewlery.

Ok, I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain the jewelry bit.

Alright, you got me, I made that half up. But while writing I remembered a friend once told me that he had swallowed a gold tooth accidentally.

Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#72
post #4

I guess it’s convenient and probably would save lives by way of course early detection... But... what about going in for an interview and unbeknownst you get idd and samples get sent. Or your employer... oh so and so is coming on with an expensive disease which requires loads of time off to recover... There are implications that need to be adressed.

Well those people who stole your poo just performed a medical procedure upon you without your consent. That poo is 'you' I'm pretty sure... Whoever has the best lawyer wins.

Many jobs have random drug testing and they're perfectly legal.

Even worse, Uhual will not hire nicotine users: https://www.uhaul.com/Articles/About/19926/U-Haul-To-Impleme...

Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#73
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point of the parent is not so much that you need to take your data to a doctor as much as it’s about not uploading the data to the internet (ie keep the data local).

Or the obvious middle-ground: make it optional to upload it. I would certainly not want this unless it uploaded and analyzed the data automatically. If it can happen locally, no problem, but I guess it makes it much harder.

If they make it optional, I'd bet good money on the "Don't upload" being off by default and hidden behind five complicated menus.

Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#74
post #44

Have not read the article, but every time I've heard about it my thought is, "make it not connected to the internet." Basically, keep the data local, then you can choose to take to your doctor, or find a way to analyze it yourself. No need for it to be transmitted anywhere. Of course, that would require respecting a persons privacy and not falling for the lure of "big data" "saving the world".

But then you would have to install updates constantly to have the latest models to compare your data against, vs a cloud solution where the models are always up to date.

Privacy is important, but I think the solution I want is more in the area of haveibeenpwned, where an anonymized hash is passed into the ether rather than all the personally identifiable stool information.

Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#76
post #44

Have not read the article, but every time I've heard about it my thought is, "make it not connected to the internet." Basically, keep the data local, then you can choose to take to your doctor, or find a way to analyze it yourself. No need for it to be transmitted anywhere. Of course, that would require respecting a persons privacy and not falling for the lure of "big data" "saving the world".

That defeats the entire point of this, the whole point isn’t a diagnosis but an early warning especially of it can be performed within a single bowl movement so when you are done and ready to flush you get some feedback. If you need to go to a doctor to get any analysis you might as well bring your own stool sample. This is intended to replace home stool testing kits which are well icky and tricky to use. Having smar…

Can we really trust whoever runs the toilets to respect the privacy of the "user"?

Both governments and private corporations have given us ample evidence that the answer should be a hard "no!".

Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#77
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the obvious middle-ground: make it optional to upload it. I would certainly not want this unless it uploaded and analyzed the data automatically. If it can happen locally, no problem, but I guess it makes it much harder.

If they make it optional, I'd bet good money on the "Don't upload" being off by default and hidden behind five complicated menus.

It is also reset with every update, which have an ominously high frequency, like once a week. The device will of course disable it's features if an update is not applied.

Also, make it full of "useful" granularity like: "upload data on Tuesdays" or "Only upload data if the water PH is less than 7".

Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#78
post #44

Have not read the article, but every time I've heard about it my thought is, "make it not connected to the internet." Basically, keep the data local, then you can choose to take to your doctor, or find a way to analyze it yourself. No need for it to be transmitted anywhere. Of course, that would require respecting a persons privacy and not falling for the lure of "big data" "saving the world".

I totally agree.

The article states: "The smart toilet automatically sends data extracted from any sample to a secure, cloud-based system for safekeeping."

This sentence sounds like satire these days.

Re: ‘Smart toilet’ monitors for signs of disease

#79

Stool diagnostics are the future. So much health information is flushed down the toilet. I hope this will soon be a standard in houses. Except, the problem is what happens to the data of friends that use your toilet...

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