Sea Hero Quest is of huge benefit to medical researchers. So what’s the catch? | Emily Reynolds

A game providing data from 2.4 million players will help research into the early stages of Alzheimer's. But the move raises questions about privacy

In tech circles, alongside words such as "scaleable" and "the gig economy", you often hear the phrase "tech for good" bandied around. Sometimes it's a fairly innocuous but ultimately toothless concept, essentially denoting the idea that technology has the potential to be a driver for positive social change but not doing very much about it. Other times it can take on a more creepily utopian tone, suggesting that should the world more closely represent the shiny libertarian enclaves of Silicon Valley, the world's problems would be solved. And sometimes - just sometimes - it does what it says on the tin.

Related: Sea Hero Quest: the mobile phone game helping fight dementia

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