TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Google’s giant Equiano Internet cable has landed in South Africa

      8 August 2022

      The African tech start-ups eyeing global markets

      8 August 2022

      Karpowership loses bid to overturn environmental ruling

      8 August 2022

      New app launched to tackle potholes in South Africa

      8 August 2022

      Rogue database felled Capitec in its worst-ever IT outage

      7 August 2022
    • World

      Nvidia issues profit warning on slump in demand for graphics cards

      8 August 2022

      Buterin: Mining on Ethereum Classic won’t affect Merge

      8 August 2022

      Musk challenges Twitter CEO to a public debate

      7 August 2022

      Amazon splashes $1.7-billion on Roomba maker iRobot

      5 August 2022

      Nigeria asks Google to block banned groups from YouTube

      5 August 2022
    • In-depth

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022

      Webb telescope’s stunning images of the cosmos

      12 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022

      Demystifying the complexity of AI – fact vs fiction

      6 July 2022

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022
    • Opinion

      SIU seeks to set aside R215-million IT tender

      19 July 2022

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»In-depth»Fitness trackers: wearer be warned

    Fitness trackers: wearer be warned

    In-depth By The Conversation11 September 2014
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    runners-640

    People interested in tracking their health, physical activity levels and body functions can now choose from a plethora of sensor-embedded digital gadgets to monitor and measure their bodies. But the big question for many users is how their personal health and medical data are used.

    The Apple Watch, announced in detail yesterday, is just the latest among an array of wearable technologies using built-in sensors. Apple’s iOS 8 Health app provides a “dashboard” of health and fitness data for self-trackers. Apple has also developed a tool for developers, the HealthKit.

    When self-tracking was an activity limited to jotting down notes in a paper journal or diary, this information could easily be kept private. No one else could know the finer details of one’s sleeping or bowel habits, sex life, diet, heart rate, body weight or efforts to give up smoking.

    However, when people use digital devices that connect to computing cloud storage facilities or developers’ data archives, the user no longer owns or controls their own data. This personal and often very private information becomes part of vast digital data collections that are increasingly used by actors and agents in many different social domains.

    Personal health and medical data is now used for much more than just gathering information on oneself for one’s own private reasons. This information is a commodity that can be used for commercial, managerial and governmental purposes and on-sold to third parties.

    The US Federal Trade Commission, for example, recently found that 12 health and fitness apps shared user data with a total of 76 third parties. This data in some cases included geolocation, gender, names and e-mail addresses, exercise and diet habits and medical symptom searches.

    Self-tracking devices are now often used as surveillance technologies by organisations that are interested in monitoring people’s health and medical information.

    Health and life insurance companies in the US are beginning to use financial incentives to encourage their customers to use digital self-tracking devices. The data that are generated are used by the companies to calculate risk and customise their premiums for each individual customer.

    Some wearable tech developers have arrangements in place with workplaces to support wellness programmes using self-tracking technologies.

    Even the customer loyalty programs of some retailers are now incorporating members’ digitally-tracked personal health data into their rewards systems.

    New forms of discrimination are potentially created by the use of personal health data by other parties. The Federal Trade Commission’s report noted that combining personal data sets can lead to users being re-identified even when the data were originally anonymous.

    This could have serious repercussions. People may be denied credit, housing, employment or insurance, for example, if their medical data was readily accessible.

    Devices like the Fitbit Flex let people track their health
    Devices like the Fitbit Flex let people track their health

    Not only is personal data now used by second and third parties, the security of the data is in question. We know from the recent hacking into Apple’s iCloud allowing access to celebrities’ private nude photos that such digital storage facilities are not as secure as many users assume.

    A report published by the US Privacy Rights Clearinghouse found that mobile health and fitness app developers often have no privacy policy and send the data uploaded by app users to undisclosed third parties. Few of these developers encrypted all data connections and transmissions between the app and developer’s website.

    In response to concerns about self-trackers’ control of their personal data there have been calls for better access. One of the founders of the Quantified Self movement, Gary Wolf, recently released a statement on its website announcing a campaign on this issue. He wrote that:

    Now is the time to work hard to insure that the data we collect about ourselves using any kind of commercial, noncommercial, medical, or social service ought to be accessible to ourselves, as well as to our families, caregivers, and collaborators, in common formats using convenient protocols.

    While this is a worthy initiative, the question remains as to how users can challenge the vast power of the Internet empires like Apple, Google and Facebook.

    People need to think twice before downloading apps or using wearable devices if they are concerned about what happens to their personal health and medical information.The Conversation

    Read privacy policies and terms of use statements carefully for what they reveal about the developers’ use of personal data. If, as so often is the case, the developer does not include these details, then it may simply be a case of “user beware”.The Conversation

    • Deborah Lupton is centenary research professor at University of Canberra
    • This article was originally published on The Conversation
    Apple Apple Watch Deborah Lupton Fitbit
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleDeep divisions over Internet governance
    Next Article M-Net to launch new channels

    Related Posts

    The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

    7 August 2022

    iPadOS release delayed in unusual move by Apple

    4 August 2022

    As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

    2 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    You don’t need a call centre to take advantage of call centre technology

    5 August 2022

    Black man, you are still on your own

    5 August 2022

    UC&C interoperability offers businesses operational cost relief in tough times

    4 August 2022
    Opinion

    SIU seeks to set aside R215-million IT tender

    19 July 2022

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.