The issue caused such an uproar among fans that Samsung released an official statement on the matter in an attempt to clarify things:
“We would like to inform you about the consent to use health data for Al training and modeling, which is newly collected through the July 2026 update. Samsung Health has a separate consent process for health information used for Al development purposes to ensure that customers’ health information is managed more securely and transparently. This consent is optional and is granted based on each customer’s choice. You can also withdraw your consent at any time after providing it.”
Mike Sawh
The statement continues: “If you withdraw your consent, data that has been separately collected and used for Al development purposes will be deleted and will no longer be used for Al development purposes. However, existing health data stored for the use of the Samsung Health services will not be deleted and will not be affected by your use of the service.”
Thanks to the fast-growing AI industry, which has taken over the smartphone market with the likes of Gemini, Galaxy AI and Siri AI, artificial intelligence is now becoming more intertwined than ever in the fitness tracking market.
The recent Fitbit Air is built around the concept of talking to the AI-powered Google Health Coach to better understand your health data and extract actionable advice.
The timing of Samsung looking to explore more ways to train its AI models isn’t all that surprising, considering we’re just around the corner from seeing the all-new Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, which will likely be unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event on July 22.
