Uploaded Fitness Info Not Protected By Privacy Laws
By Amy E. Feldman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - What does the law say about who can see the information you upload on your fitness tracker?
One of the more popular carnival acts was the guess your weight booth, where a carny would guess your weight and if he was not within five pounds, you'd win a prize.
Seriously, what could be worse? Either way, some guy gets to find out your weight and announce it to anyone listening. Besides, if I wanted to know what my weight was, I'd close my eyes and wish real hard. Or I could put on my wearable fitness tracker and then only I and the carny and the company who sold it to me and maybe the people they give it to would know for sure.
Fitbit, RunKeeper, Pebble, Google and a host of other services allow you to enter your fitness information including what you ate, how long you slept, and how much you exercised. Most consumers figure that information is protected by privacy laws like HIPAA. But the laws that do protect your health information apply only to the diagnosis, treatment, and care of your medical issues, not to general fitness and, for now, there is no law that protects the private information that you choose to upload.
So ask the company that makes your product what they do with your information if you don't want every marketer, mortgage company - or circus barker - to know.
