By: Debra N. Diener, J.D., CIPP/G; blog at Privacy Made Simple Consumers have access to ever increasing numbers of mobile apps providing health, fitness and wellness information. Many consumers might assume that entering personal information, and especially personal health information, to gain access to the information would be very protected. That assumption needs to be reconsidered in light of excellent reports recently issued by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC). PRC has just finished a nine month project analyzing 43 popular mobile health, wellness and fitness apps–23 free and 20 paid. The PRC performed a technical risk assessment to learn what data the apps were collecting, storing and transmitting over the network. The apps are ones geared for consumers’ use on a wide-range of the above topics. PRC does not identify the apps by name; however, they are ones that can be found in the Apple App Store for iOS and the Google Play Marketplace for Android apps. The reports and a helpful summary “Fact Sheet” can all be found on the PRC’s website The reports provide in-depth findings on a range of issues. I’ve selected just a few of PRC’s key consumer-oriented findings:
All of the above-findings present different consumer concerns. However, the finding that personal data is being sent unencrypted and in the clear is particularly troubling. Personal, financial and health data could be disclosed to others on that network. What could that lead to? Consumers could be embarrassed or become identity theft victims if their information is stolen. PRC offers several excellent “consumer tips” on their website based on the various findings. An important threshold “tip” is that consumers need to research an app before downloading it and gauge their comfort level with the personal information being requested before being able to use the app. |