Privacy in Wearable Health Tech: Balancing Innovation and Security

Is your smartwatch as secure as you think it is, or is your data being collected without your knowledge? Read this blog to find out. 

In recent tech industry trends, wearable health technology is trending rapidly as people are learning to use its benefits and the accessibility it offers. Alongside the benefits, there is a concern that isn’t talked about enough: “The potential misuse of user privacy.” Not many people know what goes on behind the scenes of wearable health tech. The amount of personal health information referred to as “biometric data” in these devices cautions wearable health tech lovers that handling this data might be worrying. 

There can be breaches in data security since there is a massive lack of transparency about data usage, and misuse of this information by third parties are all risks to user privacy, highlighting the importance of safety protocols. In this blog, you can learn more about the complex relationship between innovation and privacy when it comes to wearable app development services. Exploring the benefits of these devices, the data they have access to, and how they work for healthcare professionals as well as normal people.

Understanding these concerns is important; examining this from a full life-cycle software development perspective is just what you need to know to pave the way for a future where innovation meets security. 

The Need for Balance: Innovation and User Privacy

The growth of wearable app development services is welcoming a new world of challenges in regulations and compliance. Although it is a huge technological advancement that can and already is completely changing the healthcare industry and empowering individuals, The critical question this tech presents is upsetting the balance of innovation and user privacy. 

On one hand, the benefits are very different from other devices contributing to people’s routines and everyday lives, such as:

• Improved Self-awareness: The accessibility wearable technology provides is unlike any other. Providing users with real-time data on their health metrics lets people gain important information about their physical activity, sleep quality, and a profound health status that can help them make decisions throughout the day. Informed people can change their lifestyle and take various steps that go towards their improved health. 
• Motivation for healthier behaviors: Wearable health tech provides personalized data that can be a powerful motivator for people looking to adopt healthier lifestyle habits. Often people don’t know why they’re feeling a certain way, and bad physical health can have a massive impact on mental health too. Wearables can also measure progress toward fitness goals, help users stay active, and provide important feedback on their routines. 
• Early detection of potential health issues: Several complications when it comes to physical health arrive without warning. Identifying health concerns early on is one of the promises of wearable health tech. Users with chronic health conditions, too, can keep track of their health better. By monitoring key health metrics, innovation in wearables has allowed users to know about changes in their health and alert them about any issues, so improved treatment can be done. 
• Improved communication with healthcare providers: Often times, people go to doctors and don’t have enough insight about their own health to share with the professionals they need a diagnosis from. Wearable health tech changes that make for more informed consultations and personalized plans. Doctors can assess a patient’s health better if they own a wearable health tech, leading to better diagnosis and treatment decisions while also making health management strategies that users can track on the fly. 

However, these benefits can be considered “fool’s good.” Not because they’re not true but because these benefits also lie with significant privacy concerns that require consideration. 

It is because alongside these undeniable benefits lie significant privacy concerns that necessitate careful consideration:

• Data collection and storage: Ranging from heart rate and blood pressure to activity levels and sleep patterns, wearable health devices collect personal health information at an unprecedented rate. This data is susceptible, and security concerns can be raised about how it is stored, collected, and secured (if it even is). 
• Lack of transparency and informed consent: Users worldwide of wearable healthcare devices aren’t aware of how their device collects their data, how it’s used, and how it is shared. The lack of transparency can lead to feelings of unease, and the lack of control can cause issues. 
• Data security risks: The threat of data breaches or unauthorized access to personal information is very big for wearable health devices. This threat carries a considerable risk to user privacy. With weak security protocols in the Wearable data regulation systems, a lot of confidential information can be spread without consent, which isn’t common as cybercrime keeps rising.
• Potential misuse of data: Whether it’s insurance discrimination, targeted advertising, and, in some cases, employment decisions, the possibility of user data being misused when it comes to wearable smart health devices can raise ethical concerns. Establishing top-of-the-line security protocols isn’t just a call; it’s need of the hour to ensure the responsible use of collected data. 

Finding the right balance between innovation in the tech field and ensuring privacy at the same time is of utmost importance. Creating a safe future where wearable app development services allow people to manage their health while also being ensured of their information is the goal of software development companies around the globe. 

The Rise of Wearable Tech and the Data They Collect

Witnessing a never-seen-before rise in recent years, wearable health tech is being driven by miniaturization, sensor tech, and a seamless wireless communication system. The devices we’ll talk about below are some examples of wearable health tech that can seamlessly integrate into our daily lives:

• Smartwatches: These watches go like any other on your wrist but have multifunctionality in the sense that they work as a phone. Although first made with only the option to get notified whenever the wearer receives a call or text on their smartphone, smartwatches can now track heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and activity levels. Some even have a built-in GPS system for outdoor activities!
• Fitness Trackers: Fitness trackers are becoming an increasingly common gadget in the fitness industry. From fitness specialists to avid fitness enthusiasts, everyone seems to be a fan of these. They can use these to track their steps taken, sleep patterns, and calories burned. Many fitness trackers also remind you to stay hydrated, amongst other alerts. 
• Health Monitoring Devices: No, we’re not referring to those big machines you get plugged into at a hospital visit. Health monitoring devices are much smaller but equally complex if you look at them through medical goggles. These devices have more in-depth health information, such as glucose monitoring for people with diabetes and stress-related blood pressure monitors for those diagnosed as hypertensive.

Now, let’s talk about the data these wearable health devices collect that not many know about. 

• Biometric data: Including highly sensitive information about someone’s physical state, the biometric data collected by these devices consists of heart rate, sleep patterns, blood pressure, and much more. 
• Activity data: Similar to biometric data, wearable tech helps users keep their activity data secure. Data such as steps taken, distance covered, calories burned, and intensity of an activity can tell a lot about a person’s fitness level or daily movement patterns. 
• Location data: One of the more scary ones, many wearable health devices have GPS technology. This allows the company to track one’s location while also knowing what they’re doing through biometric and activity data. This can be utilized to map activity routes or even analyze activity patterns. Knowing where someone goes and what they do. 

Although this is a remarkable feat in the tech industry, the collection of such diverse data can have critical user privacy issues if not handled well. Since we know now the kind of user information these devices carry, let’s turn the page over and learn about privacy concerns when it comes to wearable app development services. 

Privacy Concerns in Wearable Health Tech

Apart from the concerns that touch upon data collection, let’s talk about how the collected health data from wearable health devices can raise even more alarms about wearable data privacy:

• Insurance Discrimination: Insurance companies are already lining up for the chance to be able to use health data collected from these devices to either deny coverage or charge higher premiums depending on the client’s health status obtained from their smart health devices. 
• Employment Discrimination: There’s a very big possibility that employers can use the health data of an individual to either hire them or promote them. Job-based decisions shouldn’t be this unfair towards individuals with certain health conditions. 
• Targeted Advertising: Utilizing wearable health data for targeted advertising, companies are making fortunes through tracking the data gained from wearable health devices. These exploitative marketing practices aren’t ethical and are a total invasion of user privacy. 

Developing Secure Wearable Health Tech

Since you’re now up-to-date on the complications that arise with wearable health tech, you must be wondering what the solution is, right? 

Well, it isn’t the device that is the problem. It’s the applications loaded in the software that either can’t be trusted or aren’t updated with recent tech trends. This is where Cubix comes in. Amongst our many other services, we are also a wearable app development company. Having worked with Fortune 500 companies, SMEs, and enterprises, we recognize these complications and are hell-bent on providing new software solutions for wearable health tech devices so users can know exactly where their data is going, gaining trust and reliability. 

Our security protocols are of utmost importance, so have your wearable health tech application, whether it’s a smartwatch application or a fitness tracker software, built by us. Suppose you want to learn more about how Cubix, a reputable full-life-cycle software development company, builds secure solutions for wearable health technology. 

Contact us to learn more about our commitment as leaders of the industry towards a future where technology allows people to take advantage of it while also ensuring their privacy is not compromised, no matter what.