Showerthought: My phone knows more about my health than my doctor does and that scares me a little

I noticed this when I looked at my step count from a hike last weekend. My fitness app tracked my heart rate, sleep, and even how many calories I burned. But when I went to my doctor for a checkup in Seattle last month, he just asked how I felt and took my blood pressure. I get that AI can spot patterns in data, but who actually owns all that personal health info? Does anyone else feel weird about insurance companies potentially seeing this stuff someday?

2 comments

2 Comments

nora_dixon22d ago

Right? I had the same thing happen with my Fitbit catching an irregular heartbeat my doctor never noticed during visits. It's messed up that this data is just sitting there without clear rules on who gets to use it.

nora_dixon22d ago

My cousin's insurance rate went up after she logged her steps on an app that shared data with her provider without her knowing. It's happening everywhere - your grocery store loyalty card tracks what you buy for ad companies, your car's computer reports your speed to your insurance. All this data floating around with nobody really watching what happens to it.