We’re a little late on this, but our attention was just drawn to a really good Washington Post article about privacy concerns surrounding wearable tech (limited reads). The piece uses recent Samsung launches as the news hook, but it raises good questions about FDA and FTC regulatory issues that device makers and app writers might run up against.
The massive amount of data these new wearable devices stand to collect, the sensitive nature of the content and the uncertainty about how the information can be used have all raised concerns that consumers are being lured into uncharted territory that will compromise their privacy. Exacerbating the problem, some privacy advocates say, are recent Food and Drug Administration guidelines on medical apps that make no mention of privacy — making it unclear who should regulate health data pulled from wearable devices.
If you mess with medical data, you will come up against regulators. Better to be proactive and over-cautious than to dread a love note from an unexpected three-letter agency.