04 Nov Study Reveals Privacy Holes in Popular Health Apps
A recent study conducted by a professor at IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law revealed a number of privacy issues in popular health apps that raised concerns in the medical and legal community.
Prof. Lori Andrews reported finding alarming data privacy holes in a study of the top 400 health apps. A startling 70% of the apps shared private user health data with data aggregators, which in turn pass them onto health and life insurers. Some didn’t even have privacy policies at all.
However, the bigger problem seems to be that the apps are not violating any laws. While medical professionals are bound by federal HIPAA laws, they do not cover the developers of these health apps.
Source: NBC Chicago