That most benign of
Big Brothers

To curb user privacy concerns, Google is refusing to sell ads to support its new service, which stores personal medical information.

Google Health is a platform where users can manage medical records like test results and prescriptions, according to the Boston Globe. It is accessible via username and password, much like a Gmail account.

A recent study found that health care patients want to manage medical material online, but rarely get the quality of service they seek.

"Our model is that the owner of the data has control over who can see it," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt at an annual healthcare information conference. "And trust, for Google, is the most important currency on the internet."

The soon-to-be launched service provides an open system where third parties can build direct-to-consumer services like medication tables or immunization reminders. Google intends to profit by boosting traffic to its search site - the same model used for ad-free Google News.

Competing services include Microsoft's HealthVault, ad-supported but without ads based on health records, and AOL's Revolution Health.

Privacy advocates observe that when records are taken out of the health sector, they aren't covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Google Health partners include Wal-Mart, and healthcare providers Aetna and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In its early days as a search engine, it made a similar commitment to keep search-based advertising out of its business model.