Right. How? At least if it's an Apple product, not even the police can get a password for someone's device. If it's not linked to individuals, how will they know?

And I wonder who the external researchers will be.

I shouldn't read this stuff so close to bedtime.

Seems it's already out there. Private data brokers have been selling it, with only a few states catching up with privacy laws.

Even so, if the federal govt wants to use data, for instance stored in electronic health records, those certainly-highly-quaified-researchers-of-sterling-ethics would probably qualify as the sort of role allowed under HIPAA to access individuals' data, with no need to obtain consent.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-20/how-much-does-your-smartwatch-know-about-you

No paywall:
https://archive.is/xQJL2

Thank you--I'll go deeper in a.m.

Best not to skew your Fitbit/Oura Ring/Apple Health app data for tonight's sleep!

Today newatlas.com published info on a clinical study of fecal transplants for children diagnosed with autism. At the beginning of the study 83% of the children were diagnosed as having severe autism. After 2 years only 17% were diagnosed as severe. This very hopeful result contradicts the doom and gloom of RFK’s statements.

legitimize discredited RW conspiracy theories. As if there are any other kind.

At the very least, the government can sell that data to health insurers for an enormous amount of money (illegally of course, but what's new?).

You could completely wreck the lives of most Americans if you knew their private medical histories, or at least blackmail them. An astronomical number of us have health issues or medication regimens we'd be embarrassed to have released to employers, insurers, government agencies that have excessive control over us.

to that effect with others in this administration.

The jackass fired them.

even if they say it is.

I only learned about this on Bloomberg two days ago, but Weight Watchers, which is declaring bankruptcy, was selling patient data in spite of the fact that it states superficially on its website that it won't. If you read the entire Terms and Conditions, there is a loophole buried deep inside, but nobody has the time to read TAC or interpret the legalese.

So they were asking patients about all their pre-existing conditions, medications, and even eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. According to Bloomberg, one of the questions they asked had to do with making yourself vomit after eating. That is how personal the data they collected was, and that's the kind of data they sold (or, hell, maybe even gave away).

To trust that anything we provide online will remain private is actual folly.