Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants the FTC to crack...
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wants the FTC to crack down on health apps’ loose data sharing policies, he said during a news conference Sunday (http://1.usa.gov/1opBczS). “The FTC should require fitness devices and app companies to adopt new privacy measures that…
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will help conceal the identity of individuals and develop policies to protect consumer information in the event of a security breach,” he said. Schumer specifically cited Fitbit, saying federal protections are inadequate to ensure that sensitive health information collected by the device is not released or sold for advertising purposes. “The fact that private health data -- rich enough to identify the user’s gait -- is being gathered by applications like Fitbit and can then be sold to third-parties without the user’s consent is a true privacy nightmare,” he said. The FTC confirmed it had received a letter from Schumer outlining his concerns. The commission has done initial research into health apps’ data sharing practices, which showed popular health apps are widely sharing information with third-party companies (CD May 8 p22). Fitbit had no comment.