Dive Brief:
- The US Federal Trade Commission wants assurances from Apple that it will protect sensitive health data from being shared and collected without owners' consent by its soon-to-launch smart watch—which can track a user's pulse and potentially store health-related information—and other mobile devices.
- The two people familiar with the FTC's inquiry said Apple representatives have reportedly met on multiple occasions with agency officials in recent months to stress that it will not sell its users' health data to third-party entities such as marketers or allow third-party developers to sell information.
- FTC Commissioner Julie Brill in May stressed the agency's concern about the risks of health data that flows outside of a medical context, such as information collected via wearables and mobile health apps. Most data that consumers store in mobile health apps is not covered by HIPAA, but it is still highly sensitive.
Dive Insight:
The FTC's concerns are important ones as the market for wearable personal health devices takes off. The agency concluded in a recent study that developers of 12 mobile health and fitness apps were sharing user information with 76 different parties, advertisers among them. But Apple is demonstrating that it takes privacy seriously. The computing giant has appointed a team of outside experts to respond to health data issues such as the ones raised by the FTC.
The new smart watch follows industry best practices, and has a feature that encrypts personal data on the device, so information is protected in the event of loss or theft. Also, Apple requires that users must give consent before app developers may have access to their health information.
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