Health and fitness apps are a great way to get to know your body, take care of your mindset, and even track sleep cycles – but all of these fitness apps could harm you as they can access and share intimate personal data.
Health and fitness apps that help smartphone users track every step of their wellness journey could steal their private data, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal.
How health apps invade your privacy
The study found that more than 20,000 different health and fitness-related apps have insufficient privacy information, which in turn prevents the average user from making informed decisions about what actually happens to their data. At least a third of these apps collect user email addresses. More importantly, these apps share data with third party companies, including advertisers.
In addition, many of the apps used insecure communication protocols, had no data protection guidelines or only technically complied with the existing data protection guidelines. Even so, only 1.3% of user reviews have raised privacy concerns.
The more health apps, the more vulnerable you are
The emergence of smartphone and wellness apps during the pandemic has made privacy concerns even more pressing to critics. Tech companies are trying to strike the right balance between public calls for more digital privacy and developers’ financial needs.
Google recently announced that it would set up a new security area in its Play App Store. Apple offers an anti-tracking feature that allows iPhone users to deny apps access to their personal data and browsing history.
The FDA recommends that medical device manufacturers, including app developers, incorporate risk management into the product lifecycle to protect patients and users. It requires that app developers and the like “address vulnerabilities that allow unauthorized access, alteration, misuse or unauthorized use of information that is stored, retrieved or transmitted from a medical device to an external recipient, and that does so that can cause harm to the patient. “
However, until there are actionable changes to the way health and fitness apps manage, store, and protect sensitive health-related data, users should think carefully about what they really want to reveal.
The FDA has not yet announced a final date when these changes will go into effect.
