FDA-approved health apps have understudied data-transmission practices

Evidence

The researchers note that although the FDA approved the prescription of a range of apps that transmit sensitive health data, the behind-the-scenes practices of these apps are “understudied.” They examined 211 diabetes apps and randomly sampled 65 of them for close analysis of data-transmission practices. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 780

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth checking: has the body-rendition pattern in FDA-approved apps been revisited since 2016, given regulatory pressure that followed?
• XREF: connects to: Large-scale health-data aggregation can escape existing legal medical protections — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 529; US health and fitness apps operate outside meaningful health privacy regulation — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 775; Diabetes apps routinely access far more phone data than they need — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 781