Samsung Health will delete your data if you refuse AI training consent

Samsung is now requiring Health app users to consent to the use of their personal health data for AI training — or lose the ability to sync across devices and have the data deleted. The ultimatum began rolling out in mid-July 2026 alongside a redesigned Samsung Health app, and it covers some of the most sensitive categories of personal data any device manufacturer collects.

What Samsung is asking for

Users opening the updated app are presented with a consent notice titled "Consent to the Use of Health Data for AI Training and Modelling." The toggle grants Samsung permission to use health data — including for "human review" — to improve its AI systems. The data categories covered are sweeping: step counts, sleep patterns, nutrition logs, medication records and prescriptions, full medical records including diagnoses and test results, and menstrual cycle data.

Samsung frames the consent as optional, but the consequences of refusing are severe. Users who decline are warned they "won't be able to sync health data to their Samsung account," and that data "will be deleted unless required by law." In practice, opting out means losing the core functionality of a health-tracking wearable that users may have owned for years.

Why this raises legal concerns

Health data occupies a distinct legal category in most jurisdictions. In Europe, genetic, biometric, and health data are classified as "special category" data under GDPR, requiring explicit, freely-given consent for processing — a standard that is difficult to meet when the alternative is data deletion. Forcing users to choose between AI training consent and losing access to their own health records is the kind of coercive design the regulation was written to prevent.

The timing is deliberate. The consent demand accompanies the Galaxy Watch 9 launch and the redesigned Health app rollout, giving Samsung maximum leverage: users who just bought a new device with years of accumulated health history face the starkest version of this choice.

86% of users oppose it

An Android Authority reader poll found 86% of respondents opposed to the policy. Critics note that Samsung's consent language does little to explain how data is anonymized, how long it is retained, or who else has access during the "human review" phase. Those are standard disclosure requirements under GDPR and California's Confidentiality of Medical Information Act — and their absence in the consent notice is itself a potential compliance gap.

Samsung had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. The policy is covered in depth by Android Authority and 9to5Google. Users in the EU who believe the consent mechanism does not meet GDPR's "freely given" standard can file a complaint with their local data protection authority.