Home // SPWID 2015, The First International Conference on Smart Portable, Wearable, Implantable and Disability-oriented Devices and Systems // View article

User Privacy in Health Monitoring Wearables

Authors:
Kiril Kalev
Jernej Mavrič
Sophie Pijnenburg
Anouk de Ruijter

Keywords: health monitoring wearables; user privacy; EU legislation; compliance with legislation; data protection

Abstract:
Health monitoring wearables are a new type of mobile devices that are worn on the user’s body and are becoming a huge trend. These devices (and the respective software needed to run the services) can track data like heartbeat and blood oxygen level, which are rightfully considered as sensitive data. If these data fall into the wrong hands, this could have serious consequences. To what extent do the five selected wearables comply with current and proposed EU data protection legislation and (how) can the privacy policies be improved? The EU is currently negotiating a new data protection regulation that will replace the Data Protection Directive. Therefore, the focus will be on the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It turns out that most market players in the field of health monitoring wearables are not ready for the coming into force of the GDPR. This paper proposes a number of improvements to better prepare data controllers for the upcoming regulation and strengthen the privacy rights of consumers.

Pages: 31 to 36

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015

Publication date: June 21, 2015

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2519-8440

ISBN: 978-1-61208-446-6

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Dates: from June 21, 2015 to June 26, 2016